Instinct
by straw dragon
Summary: Left abandoned by his teammates after suffering a wound during the chuunin exams, Naruto must overcome his new ordeal, but not before promising himself that he wouldn't be weak again. Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto and shonen do
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Revelations **

Naruto Uzumaki was hurt, both emotionally and physically. Pain like this wasn't anything new to him he had experienced it all his life, this was, however, the first time he had felt so betrayed. He was currently laying on his stomach bleeding out in the forest of death with wound going from his right shoulder mid-way down his torso. Both his teammates had abandoned him after they had run into Orochimaru of the sannin. Things with his team had been strained ever since the mission to wave, Sakura had spent every available moment trying to get Sasuke's attention. Sasuke himself had become even more isolated and cold after he gained his sharingan. The month leading up to the chuunin exams should have been a warning that things had soured to this point. Even Kakashi-sensei had been ignoring both him and Sakura and instead, had been training Sasuke with his newly awakened sharingan, and no matter how much he complained he had always pushed him aside promising that once he had better control of his chakra he would help him train more.

'Damn it, my visions going blurry.' Thought Naruto as his surroundings started to blur together as he tried to crawl himself to the underside of a nearby tree so he wouldn't be completely defenseless. Naruto thought back to the encounter with Orochimaru and how utterly outclassed he had been even when using the nine-tails chakra. His instincts were screaming at him to run away from the snake sannin but he had foolishly ignored them, he at the time, still harbored hope he and his team could reconnect. 'Damn them' Thought Naruto angrily. 'First Sasuke uses me for a substitution after the snake freak put that weird seal on me then Sakura leaves me after the bastard ran away.'

Naruto rolled into a small opening under a random tree and with the last of his strength used a branch to cover the entrance to hide as much as possible. Soon Naruto sees the world go black as he finally passes out from blood loss.

_Drip, drip, drip._

Naruto could hear water slowly dripping as he sat himself up into what he could only describe as a sewer. Naruto looked around his blue eyes sharp and cautious something that most would say didn't belong on his face. He spotted a giant gate behind him with different pipes leading into it then he heard a low rumble that sounded like a chuckle. The water moved slightly as he saw a massive figure behind the gate. "**So my jailer finally comes to meet me. It only took you to be slowly dying in the middle of a forest.**" Naruto saw the nine titanic tails swaying behind the beast and spoke in a soft whisper.

"The nine-tails" The giant fox lowered itself to look at his container his eye bigger than Naruto's entire body. Naruto felt oddly calm as he stared at the mountain-sized fox as it stared at him.

"**My my, I didn't know you were so observant little human, I expected you to be more moronic.**" The nine-tails let out another chuckle as he mocked the blond, his breath disturbed the water slightly with every breath.

Naruto had to bite back a retort he wanted to scream at the dumb fox that he wasn't a moron but his instincts were telling that would be a bad idea, and knowing that last time he ignored them he ended up bleeding out in the middle of a deadly forest filled with not only wild beasts but also enemy ninja. Naruto swallowed before responding "Your right I haven't been the most studious ninja." Naruto remembered when he first started to tune the world out, the harsh words of the villagers that would haunt him during the nights as he slept. He also remembered when he started using a mask so obnoxiously happy to hide away his fears, his anger, his hate. He didn't know when the mask he wore became his actual face, but in the end, it had come to bite him in the ass. Naruto looked up and for a split second, he thought he could see sympathy in the eyes of the fox before a hard un-readable look came to its eyes. "I assume we're in the seal, so how long do I have, you said I was dying."

The nine-tails looked at the blond before he let out a long breath. "**You assume correctly jailer of mine, we are indeed in my cage.**" The fox paused before continuing."**Time moves slower in here when I want it too, so we have time before we need to be concerned about your injury. I see you've decided to drop that idiotic mask of yours.**"

Naruto looked surprised the fox new that before nodding slowly. "Yeah, I figured it was time to start being me again. I forgot myself trying to win the attention and approval of the villagers that I let my mask become my face."

"**GOOD!**" The nine-tails boomed suddenly. "**I can't have my container looking like such a weak idiot! I may be sealed away but you still represent me by proxy! The Snake put a seal on you that has severally cut our connection.**" The nine-tails suddenly brought a tail forward and sent a wave of chakra to his container. "**That is as much that I can send until this new seal is removed, go talk to the old Hokage he should be able to remove it for you.**" Naruto looked up at the nine-tails in surprise.

"Why are you helping me?" Questioned Naruto. "Don't you go free if I die?"

**"When the Fourth sealed me in you he invoked the power of the god of death, I do not wish to test to see if I would reform if I were to perish with you.**" The Nine-tails looked at his container again. "**You humans may call be a demon but I can assure you I am not, I am not so cruel as to watch a child die without doing anything.**" Naruto said nothing as he looked away with a soft whisper.

"Thank you." Naruto looked back up at the fox before he spoke again. "I promise I won't be weak anymore." Naruto then felt a small pull in his navel.

"**You're waking up, remember that you're not only representing yourself but you're also representing me! Before you go use those shadow clones to train yourself, everything they learn you learn too.**" The nine-tails said as he laid down. "**Now be gone, your dying has interrupted my nap.**"

Naruto looked on as he felt himself leave**. **"Thank you again I know you didn't have to help me." Naruto whispered before he left the seal completely.

Naruto felt himself come too and he looked around. He was still under the tree and his wound was mostly healed. It was now an ugly scar that ran across his chest. His orange and blue jacket was torn to shreds so Naruto took parts of it to make some makeshift bandages for himself. He still felt exhausted so Naruto quickly got more branches from the outside and fortified his little cubby. The sun hung low but it would be a couple of hours before night. Naruto took advantage of the little daylight he had left and managed to fill his canteen from a nearby river and was lucky enough to grab a fish to eat for the day. He wanted to make the fire now as to not draw attention to himself at night while he was still so weak from the encounter with the snake sannin.

Naruto spent the next three hours slow cooking the fish as to not draw any teams to himself with a large fire and as soon as night fell he ate his fish and went back inside the tree to think of his next move. 'I need to find my _team_.' He thought to himself sarcastically. 'The fastest way of out of this failed experiment of a team is to make chuunin. I'll look for them tomorrow and hopefully they're still alive so we can advance.' Naruto then made a clone of himself. 'Damn! I usually make about 10 shadow clones with the amount of chakra I just used. I really need to get that damn seal off. Time to see if the fox was right.' "Hey go outside and look around before you disperse yourself" Naruto ordered his clone outside and waited five minutes before a wave of memories hit him. Naruto's eyes widened. 'Holy Crap! The amount of training I can get done with this is insane.' Naruto then used a spare branch to cover himself for the night as an extra precaution against being spotted. Sleep overtook him quickly as he was already drained emotionally and physically from the day's events, thoughts of all the ways he could use his clones to train filled his mind as he dozed off for the night.

Naruto woke up early the next morning, he looked around outside and saw the sun was barely up. He quickly took note that he felt much better than the previous day but his scar still hurt. Naruto gathered his equipment before heading high up into the trees. Once Naruto made it to a high branch he made 5 clones and had them spread out as he made his way slowly towards the tower in the middle of the forest where the teams who had both scrolls would be gathering. Naruto traveled for hours before the memories of his clones came back to him. Naruto saw Team 10 going through their morning routine before packing up and following the river. His other clones saw random teams from the rain village and sound village along with two others from the leaf he didn't recognize. Naruto stopped and started to set up traps around the clearing he was in for both animals and other ninjas. He made 10 clones and had them set a perimeter around him to warn him if anyone came by. Most of the village didn't realize but Naruto was an expert in stealth, he had been hiding from villagers and later on from other ninjas when he would perform his pranks for years, hiding his presence had become second nature to him when he was out performing his pranks.

'I'm already tired and it's only been half a day.' Naruto thought to himself. 'I really need to fix my chakra control it cost way to much energy making those ten clones' Naruto then remembered how one of his academy instructors had mentioned one of the basic ways to learn to better chakra control inside his body was to meditate. He figured the seal had messed up his chakra flow by taking away the constant connection it had with the nine-tails so everything was out of whack. Naruto found a spot hidden away from view between some thick branches and got into position by crossing his legs and having his hands touching in his lap. Soon he lost himself inside his meditation and he could feel his chakra flow around his body. He felt how turbulent it felt around his stomach where he knew his seal and the one Orochimaru placed on him where. The whiskered blond spent the rest of the day until night fell soothing out his chakra. Naruto only interrupted his meditation twice, once to kill a tiger that had been caught in his trap and to hide when a team of ninja from the sound village was spotted by one of his clones.

'This should be good, I feel a lot better with my chakra flowing more smoothly. I should be good to go find my _team_ tomorrow and make sure they haven't killed themselves out there.' Naruto thought sourly to himself. 'it's almost over the faster we get this done the better chance I have of getting promoted.'

Naruto finished eating his tiger meat and set up under a tree before sleeping for the rest of the night. Once he woke up he noticed he felt many times better than he did yesterday morning. 'Good, I can finally get going.' Naruto thought before he made three clones to scout ahead as he picked up some spare tiger meat for the road. Naruto spent most of the day looking for his team before one of his clones popped and sent him memories of the sound team that had attacked Kabuto at the beginning of the first part of the exam fighting his comrades. They were in the middle of attacking Lee and Sakura, Naruto made his way towards them when he found the route his clone had taken. It had taken him longer than he would have liked as he had to avoid the many dangerous animals that were in his path. 'God DAMN IT! It's like they deliberately went the most dangerous way possible!' Naruto seethed internally before he made it to the area where he knew his team was. Naruto saw team 10 battling the sound team protecting an injured Lee and Sakura. Naruto also saw the rest of Lee's team standing not too far away from the action when he felt a disgusting chakra, it almost felt like it was corrupted but Naruto couldn't say by what.

"What power!" Naruto heard Sasuke say. His appearance surprised him and all the others as he had a flame like markings that wrapped half-way around his body. The remaining two sound ninjas took notice of Sasuke coming out from under the tree. Naruto could hear Ino and Sakura say Sasuke's name and Sasuke turned to Sakura. "Sakura where they the ones who did this to you." His tone was cold with an edge to it as Sakura nodded nearly in tears from seeing him.

"Tch, you guys are like damn roaches, you just keep popping up everywhere. It doesn't matter though, I'll blow you all AWAY!" The sound ninja with spiky hair screamed before Lifting up his hand and shouting. "Decapitating Airwaves!"

Naruto watched as Sasuke dodged the blow that tore the tree he was under away and stood behind him. The sound ninja hadn't realized he missed as he started gloating. "Ha! Just like I said, another weak roach.'' The sound ninja turned around quickly when he heard Sasuke speak.

"Such a weak attack wouldn't ever do something to a ninja of my level." Sasuke's voice could be heard clearly. The Sound Ninja angered by the display Lifted both his hands. "You're Dead! Extreme Decapitating Airwaves!" His attack was noticeably bigger but Naruto saw Sasuke once again dodge and get behind the enemy ninja, this time though he grabbed both his hands and stepped on his back locking him in place. Naruto narrowed his eyes.

'He's gotten faster' Naruto thought to himself as he watched the events unfold.

"You seem pretty proud of these arms." Sasuke said as he gripped his arms tighter, then with a vicious pull, he broke the sound ninja's arms. Sakura and team 10 looked on in shock not being able to believe how brutal Sasuke was being. Lee's team looked on mostly impassive though Ten-Ten and Lee had slightly disapproving looks to them. Naruto took this time as everyone was focused on Sasuke to move behind Lee's teammates. Sasuke let the sound ninja drop to the ground before he turned to the last of the sound team who was battle ready. "So you're the final one huh, don't worry I can fix that." Sasuke said as he walked over to him. He took four steps before Sakura had hugged him from behind and started whispering in his ear. Naruto could barely hear what she said so he pumped chakra into his ear to see if he could listen in.

"No, Sasuke this isn't you, please." Sakura begged Sasuke who Naruto saw slowly started to slump down as the markings slowly receded into the mark on his neck.

'Looks like I wasn't the only one the snake bastard left a mark on.' Naruto thought to himself as he saw the sound ninja reach into his kunai pouch and took out an earth scroll.

"We can't fight any longer Sasuke Uchiha, you are clearly stronger than us. I'll give you our scroll if you allow my teammates and I to leave." Naruto saw Sasuke nod before the sound ninja threw him the scroll and quickly and quietly picked his teammates up and left. With that everyone in the clearing let out a sigh of relief as team 10 went to Sasuke and Sakura to help them with their wounds, by this point Sasuke had collapsed as the final marking receded into his seal.

"Man, that was such a drag." Choji pulled out a bag of chips before responding to Shikamaru.

"Yeah, those sound ninjas were Tough." Ino meanwhile was busy helping Sakura even out her hair as it had been cut sometime since the last time Naruto saw her.

"C'mon Sakura I'll even this out quick." Sakura looked over at Ino and nodded in gratitude. "Thanks, Ino pig." Ino Smirked back before replying. "Don't think just because I'm helping you means I'll let you have Sasuke."

Ten-Ten and Neji dropped down and Ten-Ten picked Lee up. Naruto heard Lee talk to his Teammates "Sorry guys, it seems my flames of youth were not enough. I'll make this up by running 30 laps around the village!" Ten-ten looked at Lee with a sweat drop before smacking Lee. "Don't be an idiot Lee, we still have to pass the exam."

Neji who was standing slightly away from the groups looked around before he spotted team 7 sans Naruto. "Give me your scroll, your down a member and already failed the exam." Team 10 and Sakura tensed. Naruto quietly made a single clone before deciding to make himself known as he jumped down and landed between the combined team 7 and 10 separating them from Neji.

"You're not getting our scroll." Naruto's appearance shocked the group team ten was wondering where Naruto had been and Lee's Team was surprised they hadn't sensed him. Neji dropped into his stance until Naruto looked at him and spoke. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Neji glared at the blond before speaking. "And why wouldn't I want to? Fate has already declared me the winner." Neji smirked before he felt a kunai touch his throat, his smirk fell as he activated his byakugan and saw a shadow clone behind him. Everyone was still as the two genin glared at each other. The tense silence was broken by Ten-Ten who spoke to Neji. "Let it go for now Neji we don't even need their scrolls." Neji nodded and Naruto dispelled his clone as Neji took off with an apologetic Lee and Ten-Ten who gave a small and quick wave to them.

Naruto then turned around before looking at the stunned team 10 and he asked them. "what about you guys."

Shikamaru was the first to answer. "troublesome, no we're not gonna fight. We just came to help out some fellow leaf ninja." Choji just nodded along agreeing with Shikamaru. "Yeah, we also have an earth scroll." Ino snapped out of her stupor and noticed the makeshift bandages. "Didn't you bring any healing supplies Naruto? That looks like a serious injury."

Naruto looked down at his chest where the remnants of his orange jacket lay. "We gave all our healing supplies to Sakura when we entered the forest." Naruto's tone was cold and even and it freaked Ino out who had never seen the blond act so serious.

"Well, why didn't you go to her when you got hurt you dumbass!" Ino's tone was sharp as she tore into Naruto. There was a small pause before Naruto answered. He wanted to scream right back at Ino but he had dropped his mask there was no reason to overreact. Naruto finally answered.

"We got separated." Sakura flinched at this, her head hanging low in shame. Ino looked over at Sakura and asked her for some bandages when she shook her head saying she used them all on Sasuke's injuries. Ino looked upset before she reached into her pouch and brought out some of her supplies.

"You're lucky I brought extra supplies Naruto." Ino's tone was annoyed as she walked over to Naruto. "Now sit, I'll bandage you up." The others looked on surprised before Ino turned to them and yelled. "Don't just stand there go set up a camp for the night you idiots!" Choji and Shikamaru grumbled to themselves about bossy blondes before heading off to make a fire.

Naruto looked at Ino as she took off the shredded Jacket and shirt and saw the scar that ran across his chest. "Thank you Ino." The blonde looked up and blue eyes met. Ino frowned before replying. "Don't look too much into it. I'm just helping out a fellow team." Naruto said nothing as Ino finished wrapping his torso up.

"How did this even happen?" Ino's questioned the injured blonde. Naruto frowned and had to hold back the anger he felt towards his team. He replied eventually as she moved away from him.

"We got ambushed and I was caught off guard by how skilled the enemy was." Ino's frown deepened before she looked him over.

"You have to be more careful Naruto, this isn't the academy anymore." Ino's reply sent a wave of anger through his body before he pushed it back down as Ino didn't know what really happened.

"Yeah, it won't happen again. That I promise." The two blondes made their way over to the rest of the group with Sasuke was put under another tree and Sakura, Choji and Shikamaru were sitting around the newly made fire. Naruto looked at Sakura who looked away from his gaze, he turned to the other two and addressed them. "Thank you for helping out my team guys."

Choji nodded. "No problem Naruto, we couldn't just sit there and do nothing while they were being attacked.

"Tch, yeah it was troublesome but if we hadn't helped Ino would have yelled at us until we were deaf." Shikamaru laid down after he said this. Ino who was offended punched him before sitting next to Sakura. Naruto walked over to the fire and sat down as he pulled out the rest of his tiger meat to share with the others. Choji and Shikamaru took the offered meat and Ino and Sakura denied them.

It was quiet as the sun set as Naruto used his arm as a pillow and laid down under one of the trees. They had all went to different trees to sleep, team 10 and Sakura were taking watch tonight he offered but was shot down, Ino telling him he should rest. Naruto meditated before he let sleep claim him. 'Only two days left we need to move fast tomorrow.' Naruto's thoughts drifted to his team. 'Just two more days and we can get out of this horrible place. Naruto's last thought of the night was of his promise to the nine-tails and how he promised he would never be weak again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Preliminaries begin

Naruto felt himself wake up and quickly made his way out from under the tree where he was resting. He spotted Ino awake and slowly made his way towards her, he also noticed Sakura waking up from her spot next to Sasuke where she had most likely spent the night watching him when she wasn't on watch. Naruto made a clone to go out and find a animal so they could eat before they left as he started up the fire that they had put out last night as too not attract attention. "Hey Naruto, you're up early, are you sure you should be up so early the sun just came out." Ino's voice snapped Naruto from his thoughts as he turned towards her.

"I want to get the day started as early as possible. The faster we can get the scrolls we need the faster we can leave this forest." Ino was looked surprised before letting out a small chuckle as she looked at his bandages and noticed they were still in pretty good condition.

"Yeah, I miss my bed. This place is crazy, even Sasuke was hurt." Naruto frowned at the mention of his teammate, he was once again interrupted from his thoughts when his clone came back with a rabbit. Ino looked at the clone an saw it had brought food and her eyes widened a bit. "I didn't know your clones were so useful."

"They're very useful, but they cost a lot of chakra." Naruto took a moment before setting the rabbit over the fire as his clone had already skinned it. "Ino, go wake up Choji and Shikamaru and I'll wake up my team." Naruto had to hold back the venom that wanted to leak into his tone. Ino nodded before walking over to where her teammates were resting. Naruto walked over to Sasuke's tree as he heard Sakura speak to him for the first time since she had abandoned him, she had circles in her eyes from lack of sleep.

"Naruto, I'm glad you're ok." Her voice was raspy it was obvious she had not been resting.

"Stop pretending like you care Sakura, there's no one here to fool." Sakura looked hurt by his words but before she could respond Sasuke groaned and sat up. He looked around groggily and his eyes grew wide when he noticed Naruto.

"So you managed to survive, huh dead last." Sasuke's remark made Naruto's eyes blaze with anger as he slowly calmed himself down. Naruto had to remind himself he still needed them to pass this part of the exam. Naruto glared at them before responding.

"Get up, Ino is waking up team 10 and as soon as we eat breakfast were leaving." Naruto's icy tone took Sasuke by surprise as he responded with an icy tone of his own.

"And why should I listen to you."

"Because I'm not a coward who runs away from a fight." Naruto's reply sent Sasuke into a rage as he stood up with his Sharingan active as he glared back at the blond. Sakura quickly stepped between them as she spoke to both of them.

"Guys please." She pleaded to her two male teammates. "Let's just be glad we all managed to survive." Sasuke said nothing as he clutched his neck before he huffed and pushed past Sakura and shoulder bumped past Naruto who glared at him. Sakura turned to Naruto. "I'm so sorry I left you Naruto but after Sasuke collapsed I-"

"Shut up Sakura, it doesn't matter what you say. It doesn't change the fact that you left me for dead out there after I came back and risked my life for you two." Naruto didn't wait for a reply as he left to go to the others.

It was an awkward breakfast with all of team 7 being very quiet. Eventually the teams decided to head towards the tower after deciding to team up. The group had been traveling for a couple of hours in silence before Shikamaru had asked Naruto why he wasn't with the rest of his team when the sound team attacked along with asking when he had shown up. Sakura looked over to them as she, Ino and Sasuke were leading the group. Before she or Sasuke could talk Naruto beat them to it

"We got separated when an enemy team ambushed us." Sakura looked surprised and Sasuke looked impassive. Ino took notice of Sakura's expression but said nothing.

"I showed up when Sasuke woke up with those weird markings. I was going to show myself then but decided to see how things played out when Sasuke beat the sound team." Naruto's answer surprised Shikamaru who nodded with a calculating look. At this point Choji decided to also speak up.

"You looked real cool against the Hyuga Naruto. I didn't even see the clone come up behind him." Choji's praise caused Sasuke to look over at Naruto with a hard expression before he turned back around.

"Yeah it was pretty cool but nothing is ever gonna be as cool as Sasuke." Ino's reply was expected but it still annoyed the blond to be compared to Sasuke.

The two teams made a quick stop to eat lunch before continuing. They had traveled for another four hours before they stopped as they heard two people arguing. It was one of the other sand teams, they were all wearing tan shirts and black pants. The two arguing had short brown hair and eyes. Their female teammate had long black hair as she tried to get them to calm down. The group had already made a plan to capture any enemy teams they ran across. Sasuke made himself known to the sand ninja as Shikamaru sneaked behind them and used his shadow possession jutsu to immobilize the enemy. They started screaming curses and threats but stopped when Naruto made 2 shadow clones and knocked them out. The group tied them up as they searched the sand Ninjas and managed to acquire a heaven scroll. They decided that Sasuke being the best fighter should keep the scroll, Naruto had to hold a remark as he figured causing an argument would slow them down more than necessary.

The two teams set up camp for the night as Choji and Shikamaru decided to go to the nearby river to fill up the canteens and catch some fish. Sakura set up the fire as Sasuke went off to a nearby tree to rest. This left Ino and Naruto alone and she took advantage of the time to replace his bandages. "So what actually happened between you and the rest of your team? You guys have been glaring at each other all day." Ino's question caught Naruto off guard he must have shown it as Ino spoke again. "Hey, what's with the face. My clan specializes in information gathering it was pretty easy for me to see you guys weren't telling the whole truth."

Naruto thought pretty hard before answering. "I'll tell you after we reach the tower." Naruto didn't want to tell Ino who would then confront his team, that would cause them to go slower, plus he really needed to talk to the Hokage about Orochimaru and the seal he had put on him and Sasuke. Ino glared at her fellow blond clearly not liking the answer as she finished applying new bandages.

"Fine. I expect you to tell me as soon as we get inside the tower then." Her tone left no room for argument and Naruto really didn't feel like starting a fight with the platinum blonde so he nodded. Soon enough everyone minus Sasuke gathered around the fire and soon the dinner was eaten and everyone drew lots to see who would take watch. Naruto had gotten the second to last watch with Choji taking the last spot. Shikamaru would start off, with Ino going next then Sasuke followed by Sakura. Before they each went their own sleeping areas Naruto heard a noise as he prepared to jump into action. Kabuto pushed his way past the bushes as he made himself known to the others, this caused everyone to jump up and get into a combat stance until they saw it was another leaf ninja and lowered their weapons slightly. '

"Oh! Hey Kabuto what are you doing here?" Sakura was the first to break the silence.

"My team and I decided to split up to cover more ground, I saw you guys were all gathered and I figured I could come help out some fellow leaf ninja." His response put everyone at ease except for the two male members of team 7, though for completely different reasons. Naruto because his instincts told him not to trust him and Sasuke because he wanted to fight Kabuto for his scroll. It took Sakura, Choji, Shikamaru, and Kabuto himself to convince Sasuke to let Kabuto join them to hunt down other teams. He had convinced the group that his team already had both scrolls and that they were going to meet up with him at the tower tomorrow. Soon the night passed and when it was Naruto's turn to keep watch he went to a well-hidden branch made 4 clones to patrol for him and meditated until it was finally Choji's turn.

The group woke up just before dawn as they made their way towards the tower when Naruto felt something was off. He noticed his chakra had shifted slightly and quickly cleared the disturbance and saw he was put into a mild genjutsu. Naruto stopped and warned the others. "Guys stop, we were put under a genjutsu." Sasuke was quick to reply.

"And how would you know loser." His voice carrying a mocking undertone. Kabuto put his hands together and shouted 'release' and confirmed that they were in a genjutsu. Sasuke glared at Naruto before releasing the genjutsu himself as the others followed suit. The group was on guard as a voice spoke out and 3 figures rose from the ground.

"So you noticed the genjutsu huh, well it doesn't matter we will be taking your scrolls from you now." The middle ninja said. Naruto noticed that all the genins were wearing respirators and were from the rain village. They all had on a tan jumpsuit and masks around their eyes with the one on the left covering one eye and the one on the right covering both eyes. The middle one had two eye holes and was glaring at the group.

Sasuke stepped up to the rain ninjas. "Hmph, you weaklings are the ones who are about to lose their scroll." Sasuke then rushed towards them and punched the one in the middle and was shocked to see his fist phase through him before receiving a counter punch from the one-eyed rain ninja. Sasuke rolled with the punch and backed up where everyone got into their fighting stances. The rain ninjas seemed to multiply as more and more of them rose from the ground around them.  
"Oh man, there's a lot of them." Choji's voice cut through the air as random clones rushed the group who started to fight back only for their attacks to go through them just like Sasuke's attack. Random clones would counterattack against the group making everyone even more confused when their attacks would fail. Naruto suddenly moved his head to the left as he felt the wind from the rain ninjas punch, acting on instinct he grabbed the outstretched limb, before turning around and tossing him over his shoulder unto the ground before delivering a devastating haymaker to his face breaking his respirator and knocking the rain ninja out.

"The real ones are hiding with the clones!" Naruto warned his companions as he saw Sasuke activate his Sharingan with a look of anger and kicked the one who had his eyes covered in the stomach and as he doubled over Sasuke took advantage by uppercutting him and knocking him out. The last rain ninja tried to run away but was caught by Shikamaru's Shadow possession jutsu. The rain ninja looked around in panic.

"Wai-"

He couldn't finish as he was knocked out by Kabuto who told the others to tie up the rain ninjas as Ino and Sakura searched them. The girls found they had a heaven scroll. Upon seeing this the group sighed in relief at the sight of it. Ino let out a small cheer with Sakura before Naruto looked at everyone. "Let's get to the tower as soon as possible, I want to get out of this forest. " Naruto snapped everyone out of their mini celebrations and soon the group was moving and after half an hour they came to the tower. Kabuto was called over by the rest of his team as he said a quick 'bye and good luck' After that team 10 also said their goodbyes and left to enter through another door but not before Ino whispered to the blond that she still wanted an explanation from him. It was just team 7 for the first time since the encounter with Orochimaru, things were tense and Sakura read the message on the door as a way to ease the tensions.

"For those who have earth, they must seek heaven, for those who have heaven they must obtain earth. I wonder what that means."

Naruto and Sasuke just stayed quiet as they watched Sakura ponder the riddle. Sasuke became inpatient as he took out the scrolls and opened them and threw them on the ground when they started to smoke and soon Naruto heard a very familiar voice and he let out a small smile.

"You guys just barely met the deadline but I'm glad you made it." The smoke cleared completely and allowed them to see their scarred academy teacher. Iruka had a big smile on his face before he noticed Naruto's bandaged chest and frowned but said nothing. "If you guys haven't figured it out yet the riddle on the door represents how to become a well-rounded ninja. It means if you lack heaven which represents intelligence that you should study to learn all you can. The other is fairly obvious that those who lack earth which represents bodily strength should train to acquire what they lack. " Sakura nodded paying close attention to her old sensei while Sasuke ignored him completely as Naruto nodded along. "The next stage begins in about two hours so take your time to rest before you're summoned. Good luck guys I'm proud of you." Iruka suddenly went up in smoke and disappeared.

Naruto frowned. 'I couldn't ask him about going to old man Hokage.' Naruto went through the door and found three beds and two doors one of them was opened leading to a bathroom and the other was closed he assumed was the entryway to where they needed to go. Naruto saw Sasuke go into the bathroom and close the door as he and Sakura were left by themselves. Naruto moved to one of the beds and laid down when Sakura interrupted him.

"Look Naruto I'm sorry about what happened in the forest." Sakura was still standing in the middle of the room.

Naruto took a second to compose himself before he answered. "It doesn't matter anymore Sakura. What's done is done."

Sakura let out a small smile. "I'm glad you could forgive us it won-" Naruto cut her off.

"I don't forgive you Sakura, not you or Sasuke." Sakura froze before her face grew red with rage.

"What is your problem! I made a mistake and I've tried to apologize for it and every time I do you just blow me off! We're supposed to be a team you Idiot!" Sakura screamed at the blond and was walking over to him to hit him when she froze from the killing intent that Naruto was releasing.

'How dare she, How DARE she!' Naruto seethed as he continued to glare at the pinkette. He slowly got up from the bed and walked over to her and Sakura backed up until she fell on one of the beds. "My _problem _is that one of my teammates is a deranged emo who used his already incapacitated teammate for a substitution and the other one is a useless fangirl that would rather run off with her precious crush than go help her bleeding, badly injured teammate. My problem Sakura is that my teammates _abandoned _me in the middle of a forest filled with dangerous man-eating animals and enemy ninjas." Naruto's voice never rose but Sakura could feel the pure loathing in them. "So no Sakura I don't forgive you or Sasuke because as far as I'm concerned you, Sasuke, and this team can go to hell." Naruto finished his tirade and noticed Sakura had started crying halfway through. He went back to his bed and laid down waiting for Sasuke to exit the bathroom. Sasuke exited after another 10 minutes and ignored both his teammates as he laid in his own bed and promptly fell asleep. Sakura had rushed into the bathroom after Sasuke had gone in and slammed the door shut. 'Great' Thought an already annoyed Naruto. 'She's probably going to be there for the rest of the time we have left' Deciding that going to the bathroom to clean up was not worth the hassle Naruto began to meditate again to pass the time and sooth his chakra flow. It was another hour before Sakura came out with puffy eyes and simply went to the final bed to rest for the remaining time. Naruto took this chance to go into the bathroom. He noticed there were spare medical supplies and used them to bandage up his torso. He also noticed they had spare shirts and pants. 'Good I've gotten tired of running around with my chest always exposed.' Naruto threw the remaining pieces of his shirt away and put on a short-sleeved black shirt. the bandages were visibly sticking out but he didn't care anymore about his appearance. Naruto made it out of the bathroom just as the door opened and an ANBU told them to follow her telling them the next part of the exam was starting.

They made it to a big open room with stairs that lead up to catwalks where he could see all of the jonin senseis where. Naruto took count of all the teams that made it. 'All of our classmates made it, so did Lee's and Kabuto's team along with the sand team with the crazy redhead and the sound team.' Naruto stopped his observation when the ANBU told all the genin to line up so the Hokage could address them. Naruto saw Kakashi grab Sasuke and whisper into his ear. Whatever was said the younger man didn't like as he grabbed his neck and glared at Kakashi. The blond turned his attention from them to the Hokage who was standing in front of a statue of arms doing a hand seal. Naruto noticed the proctors from the first two parts of the exams as well as a jonin who was dressed in the standard leaf village chuunin uniform, he had brown bangs that stuck out of his bandana which had the leaf village symbol. The man kept coughing every couple of minutes and Naruto wondered if he was going to be ok. He saw the Hokage step up before announcing the true purpose of these exams which was to simulate war between the villages. He explained how they helped build relationships along with showing potential clients with up and coming talent.

"Unfortunately." The third began to say. "It seems too many of you have passed, we will need to conduct a preliminary round to reduce your numbers before the finals." This had an instant effect and had the genin yelling in protest. "Enough, people all over the world will be coming and there are simply far too many of you." At this point, the sickly man who was coughing interrupted the Hokage.

"Please allow me to explain from this point on lord Hokage." The third simply nodded as he allowed the man to step forward. "My name is Gekko Hayate and I will be the proctor for this part of the exam, from this point on we shall have a series of random one on one fights to cut you in half." The proctor stopped midway through the speech to cough. "Over to my right there is a screen and your names will appear randomly on the screen, those chosen will then fight. Before we begin would anyone like to back out this is your last chance to do so." Team 10 looked unsure as they had just gotten here and Ino sent a worried glance towards team 7. The Only person to back out was Kabuto who said he was out of chakra after spending 5 days fighting in the forest.

"Sorry I just can't keep going." The Proctor just nodded and an ANBU lead Kabuto out of the room.

"Does anyone else wish to leave?" The proctor waited before he continued. "Very well, all of you go upstairs to your jonin senseis and come back down when your name appears on the screen. Team 7 ended up standing in between teams 8 and 9.

"Ha! Can you believe all us rookies made it this far." Kiba's boisterous gloat was largely ignored as the first two names appeared on the screen.

Sasuke Uchiha V.S Yoroi Akado

Sasuke went down the steps and smirked at his opponent who was standing across from him. Naruto heard Sasuke mock his opponent, a man with a face mask and bandana. He was wearing a blue and white shirt, blue pants and his eyes were covered by dark glasses. "This will be over fast" Sasuke's opponent doesn't respond and he simply drops to his fighting stance.

"Do you think Sasuke is healed enough to fight him?" Naruto turns to Ino, his response of 'I don't really care' never came out as he looked back to the ninja down below.

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Naruto's response caught Kakashi's attention as he was expecting a more Naruto like response. Ino just nodded as everyone turned to the proctor who started speaking.

"If both parties are ready." The proctor paused to make sure both genins were prepared. "...BEGIN!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Fights **

Sasuke dashed towards his enemy as soon as the proctor said to begin. He tried to hit him several times with punches and kicks but Yoroi, who was Kabuto's teammate, dodged them before grabbing one of Sasuke's kicks and threw him across the room. Sasuke flipped in the air before landing on his feet an angry scowl marring his face. "So this is all the mighty Uchiha clan has to offer huh. This is disappointing. Don't worry I won't make this last too long. I'll finish this with my next attack." Naruto could see that the remarks angered Sasuke even more, the Uchiha started going through some hand seals but stopped half-way as he clutched his neck.

"It looks like that mark is still hurting him." Ino's concerned voice was heard over the gasps Sakura was releasing. Naruto didn't say anything as he stared down at the fight going on below. Sasuke once again ran through hand seals as Yoroi rushed him. Sasuke took a deep breath before shouting. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Yoroi dodged to the left, he didn't dodge fast enough to completely avoid it a part of his shirt was singed by the fire. Sasuke, with unexpected speed, ran at him and elbowed the older genin in the face. Yoroi was pushed back by the blow and Sasuke tried to follow up with a kick but Yoroi grabbed Sasuke's leg mid-swing and threw him on the ground. Sasuke tried to get up but was quickly straddled by the older genin.

"It's over." Yoroi exclaimed as grabbed Sasuke by the face, his hand glowing because of his jutsu. Sasuke struggled under the bigger man but managed to uppercut him, using the opening he head-butted the older genin and freed himself from his grasp. Naruto noticed that his teammate looked a lot more worn out than he should have. Kabuto's teammate looked slightly rejuvenated. Sasuke glared at the man and the masked genin simply chuckled. "I see you noticed, my Jutsu allows me to drain the chakra of my enemies and add it to my own."

Naruto heard several gasps from the other rookies around him and saw that Sasuke glared at the man before grabbing his neck in pain. He looked over at Kakashi and saw he was watching the match intently. Naruto saw Sasuke activate his Sharingan before he moved so quickly that Naruto almost didn't notice him. 'So you copied Lee's technique.' This time Naruto heard Lee and his sensei Guy gasp in shock as they looked on. Sasuke had gotten below Yoroi before kicking him up in the air. As Yoroi was hanging in the air Sasuke blurred behind him. Sasuke grimaced in pain as his mark flared before receding back to the seal. He kicked Yoroi's side to maneuver himself above him. Sasuke launched punch to his opponents face before spinning and hitting him with an elbow that made the older ninja hit the ground just as Sasuke landed an axe kick to his stomach that cracked the floor under them. He heard his teammate shout out the name of his new move. "Lions Barrage!" Sasuke stood up and stepped away as the proctor walked over and checked on the downed ninja.

"Yoroi Akado is unable to continue the winner is Sasuke Uchiha." The other rookies, mostly Sakura and Ino, let out cheers. Naruto just let a small frown come to face. Kakashi made his way over to Sasuke before he took him away. Ino noticed that Naruto was frowning and called him out on it.

"Hey, aren't you happy your teammate won?" Her question brought the attention of Shino and Hinata.

"To be honest I really didn't care who won the match." His answer made Hinata give him a concerned look as Shino looked undisturbed. Ino who traveled with team 7 for days knew how high the tension was there. Sakura who was standing nearby just had an angry face on. The conversation was cut short as the Proctor called the next two participants.

"Would Shino Aburame and Zaku Abumi please come down." The two genins made their way down. Zaku had his arms in a sling thanks to the injuries from Sasuke. The two stared each other down before the Proctor spoke up again. "If both Fighters are ready...Begin!" The proctor jumped back to give the genin more space.

"You should give up, you have no chance of winning. Why? Because you are already injured and I am not." Shino's calm and collected tone seemed to tick off the sound ninja.

"That's the difference between us, I'm a lot stronger than any of you weak leaf ninja." Zaku raised his left arm and started firing a burst of wind at Shino who simply dodged and let his insects swarm around him.

"You've made a foolish mistake." Shino started sending wave after wave of his bugs at Zaku who tried to fend them off with his one good arm. But no matter how much he struggled he couldn't get rid of all of them. "You should forfeit. Why? Because you are outmatched." Zaku grit his teeth as he brought out his other arm from its sling.

"I always have a trump card!." Zaku screamed at Shino as he raised both his arms and pointed them at him. "Extreme decapitating Airwaves!" There was a moment of silence before Zaku's arms exploded at the elbows as he screamed in pain and fell to the ground. There were insects in his arm tubes that had plugged up the escape. All around there was a stunned silence, Naruto looked around and saw that Ino looked pale and that every one of the rookies sans himself and Shikamaru looked a little green.

"I always thought he was creepy in the academy but that was a whole new level of disturbing." Ino let out a small shudder and Sakura nodded along.

"Heh, Shino is always quiet but he's dangerous, he's probably the opponent I would like to fight least out of all us rookies." Kiba's comment was met with silence and a quiet 'troublesome' from Shikamaru.

"That's a scary kid you got there Kurenai." Asuma said to the only female sensei of the rookies who looked at her fellow jonin.

"He has the best chance out of everyone here to make chuunin." Before any of the senseis could repute her comment the proctor had called the match.

"Zaku Abumi is no longer able to battle. The winner is Shino Aburame!." Shino made his way upstairs as his teammates congratulated him, Kiba with a pat on the back and Hinata with a small smile. Kakashi walked back up the stairs and Sakura asks him if Sasuke was ok.

"He'll be fine Sakura there's nothing to worry about." Sakura looks relieved as she watched her sensei take his spot with the other jonin. The attention of everyone was once again brought to the screen as it cycled through names as it landed on Kankuro and Misumi Tsurugi who was Kabuto's third teammate. He like his other teammate wore a bandana and cloth that covered his mouth but unlike his teammate, he wore glasses that weren't blacked out.

"Would both contestants please make their way down." The two genins made their way without saying a word and were soon squared up facing each other. "If you're both ready? BEGIN!"

Misumi rushed Kankuro who did nothing but stand there and soon he Masumi wrapped around Kankuro's body with his limbs bending at unnatural angles. "Fool you should have never allowed me to get so close. My Jutsu allows me to dislocate my joints and move my arms and legs so I can perfectly trap my foes. Give up or I'll snap your neck." His tone was sharp and confident.

"I refuse." Kankuro was calm even when in such a position. Naruto narrowed his eyes and noticed that his chest wasn't moving at all. 'He's not breathing.' Naruto paid extra attention to the fight. Then Misumi followed through with his threat as he twisted Kankuro's neck.

"You should have listened." He dropped Kankuro's dead body on the ground and addressed the proctor as gasps could be heard from those around the room. "Call the match." He shouted in surprise when he was suddenly wrapped up by Kankuro's body just like he had held him mere moments ago. He turned to look at him to see his face peeling away to show a wooden puppet underneath. "What!? HOW!"

"From the beginning, you never stood a chance." Kankuro's voice came from the bundled wrap on the ground that his puppet was carrying. Misumi looked stunned before looking to the proctor.

"I giv-" Before he could finish Naruto saw Kankuro clench his hands and soon the sound of bones breaking filled the room as his opponent dropped to the ground unable to support himself.

"Heh, now it's over." The Proctor quickly called the match for Kankuro as medics came in and took Misumi away. Naruto looked and saw that Ino had a sickly face.

"I can't believe he would do that he was in the middle of giving up."

"Anything is legal as long as there is no outside help. The only rule is you fight until your opponent gives up, is unconscious or dead." Naruto's hard tone took many of those around him by surprise especially his team sensei who looked at Naruto with his one uncovered eye. The screen soon ran through more names until it stopped on two very familiar names.

Sakura Haruno VS Ino Yamanaka

The proctor called both of them down. "Good luck Ino." Naruto's remark caused everyone to look at him in shock as it wasn't a secret that the blond had a huge crush on the pinkette, Sakura had a look of betrayal but was soon covered by anger as she made her way down.

"Thanks Naruto, but I don't need luck against forehead." Ino's voice was full of confidence. Naruto simply shrugged and nodded as Ino was making her way down Kakashi spoke to his most boisterous student.

"That wasn't very nice Naruto, just because you have a new girlfriend doesn't mean you should cheer against your teammate." Kakashi had purposely phrased his comment as to get a reaction out of his student, he was expecting him to splutter and blush as he denied his claims. What he got threw him for a loop and had him wondering what was wrong with his student. It also got the attention of Ino's team along with Hinata and her sensei.

"Ino's not my girlfriend Kakashi. I was just a being civil with her for helping me in the forest." Naruto's calm response made everyone question if it was actually him and not someone else as Kakashi noticed the lack of sensei to his name. Before he could question it further the heard the proctor ask if both fighters were ready.

"Begin!" The proctor jumped back from the two girls who simply stared at each other. Before removing their forehead protectors from their individual places on their body and tied them around their foreheads. The two glared at each other before running at each other meeting in the middle of the room engaging in a taijutsu match. The Two began to exchange punches and kicks but neither was landing a blow on the other. Sakura jumped back and created two clones and rushed Ino who merely scuffed and threw three kunai one to each Sakura and saw the middle one dodged and the other two simply disappeared when the kunai went through them.

"your gonna have to try harder than that forehead." Ino mocked her rival. Sakura said nothing and began an exchange again until Ino overextended a punch and Sakura was able to land a right-handed punch to her face. The two separated after Sakura landed her punch and Ino smirked. "I'm glad you're taking this seriously."

Sakura frowns and tries a new tactic seeing as this was getting nowhere. "I always take things seriously unlike you who spends too much time caring about how she looks." Naruto who was listening to them let out a small huff.

'Hello kettle, have you met pot?' Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by Ino cutting pieces of her hair and throwing it at Sakura.

"Fine then. Let me show you how serious I can get!" Ino's voice was full of anger as she brought her hands up into her clans special Jutsu. "Ninja arts: Mind Body Switch Jutsu." Sakura who knew what the Jutsu did jumped out of the way as Ino's body slumped to the ground.

"Hah! I win Ino-pig." Sakura's celebration was cut short as she felt her get restrained and she looked down to see Ino's hair bind her. "what is this?"

"It's my Chakra Hair Trap Jutsu, I knew you would dodge my first jutsu so I faked it. now you can't dodge. Ninja arts: Mind Body Switch Jutsu" Ino fired her technique and once again fell limp as Sakura stood up with Ino's hair falling to the ground. Sakura slowly raised her hand and spoke to the proctor. "I give u-" Before she could finish speaking she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. Ino jumped up from unconsciousness as she looked around confused. Both Kunoichi looked to be breathing heavily.

"I don't know how you managed to escape but it doesn't matter you're going down." Ino's declaration would have been more believable if she didn't look like a gust of wind would knock her down.

"Bring it Ino." Sakura and Ino then rushed at each other before simultaneously landing punches on each other as they knocked themselves out. Naruto turned when he heard Ten-Ten laugh and spotted Kurenai giving both Asuma and Kakashi disapproving looks. The Proctor proclaims the match a draw and soon Ino and Sakura were brought up when the medical team woke them up. Both Ino and Sakura looked happy and determined even though they lost and neither would advance.

"You got lucky that you faced each other." Ino and Sakura looked at Naruto with curious expressions.

"What's that supposed to mean." Ino's tone was hard.

"It means if you had faced any of the sound ninja or the red-headed sand ninja you would have died." Naruto's statement sent chills through their spines as they looked at the redhead who was releasing copious amounts of killing intent.

"GO TEN-TEN, Show them your FLAMES OF YOUTH!." Naruto's attention was brought to Lee and looked towards the screen to see Temari VS Ten-Ten. Both kunoichis were already down the steps. The Proctor started the match and jumped away.

"I'm glad I get to go after the disappointment that was the last match, I can show everyone not all kunoichi are useless fan-girls." Ten-Ten's statement was met with shouts of anger from Ino and Sakura who were ignored.

"Hmph, well see about that." Temari's statement caused Ten-Ten to grow angry as she started pulling out scrolls from her ninja pouch unsealing a ridiculous amount of weapons that flew at the sand kunoichi. Temari grabbed the fan of her back and opened it slightly to show a single crescent moon and swung her fan making a gust of wind that completely stopped the barrage of weapons. "If this is all I'm going to be very disappointed." Ten-Ten with a look of determination unsealed a bow staff and ran at the blond only to be blasted back when she was hit with another blast of wind.

"C'mon Ten-Ten you can do it!." Lee's encouragement was heard by everyone.

'She got a bad matchup. If she has nothing else she won't be able to win.' Thought Naruto

Ten-Ten pulled out two scrolls from her kunai holsters on her leg and jumping into the air as she rained down even more weapons. Temari smirked before unleashing a tornado of wind that picked Ten-Ten up and slammed her unto her folded fan she was holding out. There was a moment as Ten-Ten lay there a when the proctor called the match. Lee quickly went to go pick up his teammate who was then taken away by the medics. "That was most unkind." Lee's voice was hard as he spoke to the sand kunoichi.

"Whatever kid, she's lucky I went easy on her." Lee glared at the sand team as he made his way up.

"Poor Ten-Ten she had a horrible matchup." Said, Guy.

"She wasn't fated to win today." Guy gave Neji a disappointed look before going to check on his student.

"Woohoo! We won the lottery Akamaru!" Naruto looked towards the screen to see his name had finally come up along with that of Kiba's.

"Would Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka please come down." Kiba jumped down and yelled up at Naruto. "Hurry up dead last, and don't worry I'll make this quick."

'This is it, this is where I start. No more holding back.' Naruto made his way down but not before he got a good luck from both Ino and surprisingly Hinata. Naruto stood across from Kiba when he heard Kurenai speak to Kakashi.

"Sorry Kakashi, but Naruto doesn't stand a chance."

"I wouldn't say that, Naruto may surprise you." His attention was brought back to the proctor when he announced if both fighters are ready. Kiba nodded with a smirk and Naruto just gave a single nod.

"Begin!." The proctor jumped back to give the combatants more room.

"Heh, stay back buddy I won't need you for this. Get ready Naruto cause I'll end this in one hit!" Kiba ran at Naruto with surprising speed and tried to elbow him in the gut. Naruto seeing this allowed his instincts to guide him as he spun out of the way and decided to elbow him in the back of the head. Kiba crashed into the ground and those who knew Naruto where shocked into silence at this display. "Wow! when did Naruto get so good!" Said Ino.

"Troublesome blonds." Shikamaru was instantly rewarded with a slap to the back of the head. As Sakura looked on with slight concern. Naruto jumped back to avoid a sweeping leg kick from Kiba as he stood back up and wiped the blood from his nose.

"You got lucky Naruto!" Naruto stared down Kiba as he shouted at him. Kiba decided to throw some Kunai at Naruto and as he dodged he ran up to him and tried to punch him. Naruto grabbed his punch and threw him away from himself. "Fine I'll stop messing around, Let's go Akamaru!" Kiba reached into his pouch and threw several pellets at Naruto and soon he was surrounded by the smoke. Naruto closed his eyes and focused on his senses and jumped backward as he felt a small object bite unto his shirt and tore it away.

'Great, I just got that shirt.' Naruto quickly refocused as he felt two presences coming at him from either side. He reached out and grabbed Akamaru from the air as he tried to bite his arm and quickly kicked Kiba out of the smoke. Kiba slid to a stop and saw two Naruto's one holding Akamaru and the other standing off to its left. "Give up Kiba." Naruto's tone was cold and Kiba felt himself shiver involuntarily from the slight killing intent he was giving off.

"There's no way I'm giving up! Akamaru catch!" Kiba threw a pill at Akamaru that he had gotten out when he had seen Akamaru get taken. Naruto grabbed the pill from mid-air and crushed the pill in his hands.

"If you want to continue fine, but it's going to be just you and me." Naruto signaled to his clone who quickly jumped up to the statue and held Akamaru there.

"You asked for it Naruto! Ninja Arts: Beast Mimicry All Fours Jutsu!" Kiba Shot off towards Naruto faster than ever before and Naruto rolled to the left and as he was getting up he heard Kiba shouting. " Ninja Art: Fang Over Fang!" Naruto jumped straight up to dodge Kiba who was spinning so fast he had become a tornado, unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough and his bandages got torn off allowing everyone to stare at his barely healed scar that ran across his chest. At the sight of it, several people reacted. Hinata and Sakura who had never seen the scar started tearing up. The third and Kakashi narrowed their eyes while everyone else wondered how he was able to move so well with such a wound. Naruto once he landed had to quickly dodge again as he just escaped another hit from Kiba.

'Damn it I need more speed!' Thought Naruto who started channeling chakra all over his body to give himself a boost. He made two clones to give himself a better chance to counter-attack. This had caused his seal to become visible and many people took notice specifically the sand team, Neji, and the third. The third saw that Naruto had a Five Element seal placed over his normal eight trigrams seal and was instantly amazed Naruto was even fighting at all as the seal messed with not only his chakra control but it was also meant to cut the flow of chakra. As Kiba came out of his spin he was instantly put on the defensive as two Naruto started to attack him. Kiba was able to pop one clone but the other had managed to send him flying with a kick but before he was able to regain his balance the real Naruto appeared beside him and delivered a devastating punch to his face. Kiba bounced off the floor twice as the tile under him cracked on impact. The only sound that could be heard was Akamaru whimpering and the proctor called the match.

"Winner, Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto looked up at the catwalk where the rest of the rookies were staring at him shocked. The third made a quick signal to the ANBU informing them he would be leaving for a short while then signaled the medics to take Naruto to a private room. Soon the medics took both Kiba and Naruto away as people assumed it was to deal with the giant scar on his chest. As he left he could hear the others talking about him

"Wow, I didn't know Naruto had gotten so strong." Ino's voice held amazement as all the other rookies nodded along in mute silence. "But did you see that seal he had on his stomach?" Her question made the jonin senseis look at each other. "Do you know what it does Sakura?"

Sakura looked puzzled. "No, but when we were attacked by Oro-" Sakura was stopped by Kakashi who had nudged her side who nodded slightly, this act didn't go unnoticed by Shikamaru, Neji, Shino, and Ino. "By the enemy sound team, one of them did hit him in the stomach with a weird jutsu before making him pass out." The others didn't say anything as the next contestants were soon called out.

"Would Shikamaru Nara and Kin Tsuchi please make their way down." Naruto could no longer hear what was said as he was taken into a private room and soon the third came through the door.

"Hello, Naruto. How are you" The thirds voice was calm and gentle like always.

Naruto let out a small smile one that the third had not seen since the blond had been a small child. "Hey old man. Honestly, I could be better." Naruto took a second before looking the old Hokage in the eyes and the third was reminded of another blond man for just a second. "I'm assuming you already know that Orochimaru attacked team 7."

"Yes we got the information, we also know he placed a cursed seal on young Sasuke." The third paused for a moment before continuing. "I was not aware he had placed a seal on you as well." The third let out a frown at this. "Why didn't you inform Iruka or Kakashi about it?"

Iruka-sensei left to quickly for me to tell him and I didn't see Kakashi until we were all in the big room." Naruto's words caused the aged Hokage to frown before nodding.

"Well there nothing that we can do about that now, but I can remove the seal from you right now, it was originally I who taught this jutsu to my students. I'm amazed you made it this far with the seal on" Soon the thirds left hand was lit with blue fire as he touched Naruto's stomach. "Five Elemental Seal release" Naruto felt the effects instantly.

"Thanks, old man"

"No problem Naruto, there are spare shirts over in the corner." The third pointed to the corner in the room where spare supplies were stacked. He then walked out of the room. "You can go back and rejoin the others when you're ready." with that the third left the room.

Deep within Naruto's seal, the Nine-tails lifted its massive head as he noticed the infernal seal being gone. '**Good, do not disappoint me Naruto**' The great fox thought to itself before going back to sleep.

Naruto walked out to the main area after getting a new black shirt and he noticed that Hinata and Neji where on the arena floor, and that Hinata was crying. 'This isn't good' Naruto thought to himself as he made his way upstairs


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: The Conviction of Following your Dream**

Naruto made his way upstairs as he kept his eye's trained on the fight below. Something felt off, the tension in the room was suffocating.

"Give up Hinata, no matter what you do, no matter how much you try. You can't defy fate. My eye's see everything and you are simply too weak to fight me." Hinata just stood there as more tears slid down her face. She was about to raise her hand when a voice she knew all too well sounded through the room in the form of a loud scoff. Neji Turned to look at the Blond with a glare. "Do you wish to say something."

"Our fates are in our own hands Neji, and Hinata has more strength than you could ever imagine." Naruto spoke in an even tone, he had not intended to speak up but Neji's talk of fate had really rubbed him the wrong way. Whenever he looked at Hinata he saw past the shy exterior and saw the same look that Haku had. A look saying they would sacrifice everything for their loved ones, a look he saw in himself.

"Our fates were decided from the moment we were born." Neji had a very cold look on his face as he was angered by the blonds words.

"If you truly believe that then you're an idiot." Naruto let some of his own anger slip into his tone as the rest of the contestants looked at the exchange with intrigue.

Neji sneered at the blond and turned to Hinata to continue his tirade of insults when he saw the look of determination she now held. "A few words from a fool won't change anything, give up."

Hinata took a breath as she activated her byakugan got into her stance. "I-I won't gi-give up without a-at least trying." Neji looked furious as he ran at Hinata and the two started a fight that was more akin to a dance than anything else.

"Wow! look at how they move, it's incredible." Said Ino

"Yes! That is the Hyuga style taijutsu, it's one of the most dangerous taijutsu styles in the world. They can injure you with a single touch of a finger. The style relies on shutting down the chakra system in the body by closing tenketsu points one can only see with their bloodline." Guy told all the genin nearby when he heard Ino's remark.

"There evenly matched." Sakura said as she looked at the two combatants as they stood still and traded palm strikes and finger jabs. Each blow was being slapped away and countered with a strike from the other.

Naruto let out a small frown. "No." Sakura and Ino turned their heads to him. "Neji has the upper hand, he's managed to land several blows to her arm." Everyone turned back to the fight in time to see Hinata land a blow Neji's shoulder only to make a horrified face.

"I see you finally noticed." Neji grabbed Hinata's arm and rolled up her beige jacket to show her arm littered with red dots where he had struck her. "As I told you, it was your fate to lose." Neji used her distraction and hit her several times all over her body before landing a blow to her chest that launched her across the room. Hinata stood back up on shaky legs and the proctor seeing the fight was over called the match. "Why did you stand back up?" Neji questioned the beaten kunoichi.

"I." Hinata coughed up blood before continuing. "I can't just give up, I know how much you hurt because of the clan elders, just like I do." Neji looked absolutely livid and rushed Hinata everyone looked on with widened eye's. Before anyone could react Naruto channeled chakra all over his body and moved at an incredible speed, he kicked Neji away from Hinata and stood in front of her. Neji slammed his hand on the ground, flipped mid-air and landed on his feet. The two genins dashed at each other but they were restrained by both their respective jonin senseis along with the proctor and the senseis of team 8 and 10.

The other rookies looked stunned at the speed Naruto had moved faster than any of them could see. "When did Naruto get so fast! What's your sensei teaching your team? " Ino looked over at Sakura and she looked just as stunned as everyone any further thoughts were cut short.

"ENOUGH!" The thirds voice boomed across the hall as he unleashed a massive amount of killing intent that brought most of the genin to their knees. As this was happening the medical team had taken Hinata away. "This is your first and ONLY warning! Do not fight in here unsupervised or you'll both be disqualified! That goes for everyone else too." Both Naruto and Neji nodded but the blond had not stopped glaring at the older Hyuga. Soon the two were brought back upstairs but kept separated with teams 8 and 10 between them. The proctor waited for everyone to calm down and called the next match.

"Would Gaara and Rock Lee please come down." Lee looked who had been quiet since his teammate had been called exploded in a loud cheer.

"Yes! I'll finally show everyone my flames of youth!" Lee somersaulted over the rail as Gaara appeared in a body flicker of sand.

"GO LEE! Show everyone the fruits of your hard work!" Guy's voice was even louder than Lee's.

Gaara looked on emotionlessly as his opponent stood at the ready with pure determination shining in his eyes.

"If both fighters are ready, Begin!" Gaara looked on with his face as calm as ever as his opponent sprinted at him and tried to punch him only for the lid on the gourd on Gaara's back to shoot off as sand came out and blocked the green-clad genin. Lee quickly backed up circled around him before trying again as he jumped in the air and did a spin kick.

"Leaf Hurricane!" The kick was blocked once again as the sand jumped up by itself to protect Gaara and Lee was forced back. Lee continued to try different angles but nothing was working, his every attempt being stopped by the sand. Gaara looked up for the first time in the match and the sand shot up and slammed into Lee. The green-clad ninja crossed his arms as the sand pushed him away from Gaara and towards the wall. Lee quickly regained his footing as he rushed Gaara again and tried a variety of different combination moves but it was all futile.

"Why doesn't Lee try some ninjutsu or genjutsu?" Sakura's inquiry was answered by Guy.

"That's because he can't. Lee can only use taijutsu." Sakura looked perplexed.

"You see Lee was born with chakra coils too small to properly channel chakra for anything other than taijutsu. Lee is not talented at all, but it was through his pure work ethic that he has reached this level! Lee's dream is to become a great ninja despite his inability to use gen or ninjutsu!" Sakura was about to question Guy once more but was stopped by the man's shout. "Take them off Lee! You have my permission!" Guy posed with teeth sparkling as he gave Lee a thumbs up.

Lee who was dodging sand let loose a million-watt smile as he jumped from the floor to the top of the statue. "Are you sure Guy-sensei!?"

"Yes! Go, it's time to show your blazing flames of youth!"

"Of course Guy-sensei!." Lee pulled up his leg warmers to show ankle weights. Lee unstrapped the weights and held them at his sides.

"Please, as if some measly weights will do anything against Gaara." Naruto heard the Sand kunoichi speak to her makeup wearing teammate. who nodded along. His attention was brought back to his own team sensei.

"A bit antiquated don't you think Guy." Kakashi questioned Guy who said nothing, his sole focus on his student down below. Lee let go of the weights and as they hit the ground they made huge impact craters. All around yells of disbelief rang out. Naruto's own eyes widened with awe and respect as he watched Lee blur away.

'He's so fast! I can barely see him moving down there!' Thought Naruto.

Lee appeared beside Gaara and aimed a punch his face. The sand reacted just in time but Gaara himself didn't seem to notice Lee at all. Lee then circled around and delivered a kick to Gaara's mid-section and once again the sand just barely made it. Lee stepped back and jumped before delivering a double axe kick. The first was met with Gaara's sand but the second one broke through and Gaara's head snapped down from the force of the kick. Lee not wasting the opportunity landed on his feet before launching a punch to Gaara's face that sent him flying. Naruto heard the blond from the sand team yell in shock. "HE HIT GAARA!" He also noticed that her teammate also looked just as shocked.

"GO LEE!" Guy's cheering was easily the loudest anyone had cheered during the preliminaries.

Gaara stood back up his face had cracks running all over where Lee had hit. Pieces of his face fell to the ground and it was shown that he was wearing sand armor. Gaara's face contorted into an absolutely bloodthirsty grin as his killing intent skyrocketed. "YES! You are worthy. By Killing you I shall prove my EXISTENCE!" Gaara raised his hands and the sand followed his movement, the sand started moving faster than any previous time it had moved before.

Naruto narrowed his eyes as Lee jumped back to avoid the sand. 'What a troublesome opponent.' Lee continued dodging before blurring forward and once again punching his way through Gaara's automatic defense, Lee then dropped low and kicked Gaara up with all his might and Gaara flew up. Lee followed Gaara and delivered more and more kicks pushing him higher and higher, Naruto saw Lee wince and as he closed his eyes he noticed Gaara had taken the opening to substitute himself with a sand clone. 'that's not good.' Naruto thought grimly. As Lee reached his apex he wrapped his bandages around the clone and started spinning them as they started falling head first.

"Primary Lotus!" Lee jumped away just before they hit the ground and the sand lone cratered the ground.

"Yes! He got him!" Sakura cheered and most of the genin and Guy celebrated.

"No, he didn't" Sakura looked at Naruto in disbelieve as Guy took a closer look to the combatants as his face fell.

"Yes he did!" screamed Sakura.

"Naruto's right Sakura, Gaara substituted himself when Lee closed his eyes because of the pain. I'm surprised you caught that Naruto." Naruto ignored Kakashi's backhanded compliment as he never looked away from the fight below. Lee looked worn out and he had a face of grim realization as he saw his Gaara break apart into sand. He was suddenly being thrown around by Gaara's sand. He was barely able to block and he withstood the punishment as best as possible. It was 5 minutes of torture as Lee took hit after hit before Lee started dodging again.

Naruto heard Kakashi speak to Guy in a worried tone. "Guy, you didn't." He turned to look at the jonin and saw Guy had a face of determination.

"I did."

"How many gates can he open Guy?" Questioned Kakashi.

"Lee can open 5 gates." Kakashi's eye widened.

"Guy how could you teach that technique to a genin." Naruto was very annoyed at Kakashi. He understood perfectly why Guy taught Lee. It was to help him achieve his dream, Naruto himself never received any acknowledgment or support for his dream. The only two people who had never made fun of him were Iruka-sensei and old man Hokage himself, He wanted to prove them right.

"It was completely irresponsible of you to-" Naruto had finally had enough.

"Shut your mouth Kakashi!" Jonin and genin alike looked at the blond in shock. "Who the hell do you think you are blaming Guy for helping his student try and reach his dream! That's what a good sensei is supposed to do." Naruto was glaring at his team sensei. Kakashi looked flabbergasted at his blond student's sudden outburst and before he could respond everyone's attention was brought back to the fight.

"Gate of Life: Open!" Lee's body exploded in chakra as his skin turned a pinkish hue and his hair started to raise.

"Gate of Pain: Open!" Lee moved faster than Naruto could follow and Gaara was sent flying up onto the air his sand unable to keep up as Lee kept batting Gaara around the room.

"This is crazy! I can't even see them move!" Ino's shout was met with dumbfounded stares of her fellow rookies who couldn't follow the action.

Lee kicked Gaara high into the air and wrapped his bandages around his waist. As he hits him down Lee screams again. "Gate of Limit: Open" Lee jerked his hand up and Gaara was pulled up to Lee who had his hand cocked back. "This is it! HIDDEN LOTUS!" Lee hit Gaara so hard it caused a giant shockwave and Gaara's body slammed so hard into the ground it left a giant crater and a dust cloud formed on the floor below. Guy let out a yell as he watched his student hit the ground his body looking normal after the attack. The smoke around Gaara dissipated and a very injured Gaara lifted his hand as the sand followed his movement.

"No way! How is he still up after THAT!" Sakura was not the only one to yell in shock. Naruto let out a frustrated sigh at the sight of Gaara as Kakashi spoke up. "Gaara shifted the gourd on his back into sand before he hit the ground. No one said anything after that.

'I barely saw it when it happened. Gaara's monstrously strong.' Thought Naruto

Gaara watched his opponent stand on shaky legs as his sand wrapped around his right arm and leg. "Mother wants your blood." Gaara clenched his fist and crunching could be heard as Lee's appendages exploded in a shower of blood, he fell to the ground unconscious. The proctor was about to declare Gaara the winner when he sent another wave of sand at Lee, Naruto was about to jump down himself only for it to be batted away by Guy. Hayate seeing the interference by a jonin quickly called the match for Gaara.

"Why did you save him! He lost, he no longer has any worth!" Guy looked at the deranged looking Sand ninja.

"I saved him because he's my precious student." Guy turned to take Lee to the infirmary only to see him already standing up. "Lee, it's ok I-" Guy started crying when he noticed Lee was unconscious. He quickly got him to lay down as the medics took him and Gaara away to treat their wounds.

"Would Choji Akimichi and Dosu Kinuta Please make their way down." The Proctor announces.

"GO Choji, if you win we'll have two members of team 10 in the finals." Ino's remark brought the attention of Naruto.

'I guess Shikamaru fought while I was talking to the old man.' Naruto's musing was cut short by the sound of the proctor starting the match.

"You can't win, just give up." The one-eyed sound ninja made no move to attack Choji who just glared back.

"I have to win! Sensei will take us to an all you can eat buffet if I do." Choji had fire in his eyes as he spoke.

"Feh, no matter then." Dosu charged Choji and hit him with his gauntlet, Choji who had dodged the punch fell over and vomited.

"What? I dodged that attack." Choji's voice was full of confusion.

"My gauntlet emits a silent sound wave that attacks the human ear."

Choji grinned. "Then let's see you hit me now! Expansion Jutsu!" Choji's stomach inflated and he hid his arms, legs, and head in his torso. Choji stated to spin in place as he shot off towards Dosu. The sound ninja dodged easily to the right as Choji slammed into the wall. Dosu rushed him and slammed his fist into him letting his melody arm do its work. Seconds later Choji was back to normal and the Proctor called the match. Gaara had made his way back and was covered in bandages.

"Would each match winner please make their way down." The genins made their way and lined up in front of the proctor. Hayate stepped back as the third moved to speak to the genin.

"Congratulations for making it to the finals, as you know there are three parts to the chuunin exams and the finals will be a series of one on one fights tournaments style." This caused Temari to speak up.

"Are you saying only one person gets to be promoted?" The third inhaled a deep breath from his pipe.

"No you could win every fight and not be promoted at the same time you could lose in the first match and be promoted. There will be a panel of judges that will be evaluating you during the matches. The farther you make it the better chance you have of impressing the judges and getting promoted." The Third took a pause before continuing. "You will now draw lots to determine who fights who." The third motioned to a box and one by one they pulled lots until everyone had one. "Please show me your numbers. Naruto looked at his number, he had 6. He looked at the others. Neji had 7, Gaara had 5, Shino had 2, Kankuro had 4, Shikamaru had 3, Dosu had 1, and Temari had 8. That meant Sasuke would have number 9 as he had never come back when he had left with Kakashi. 'Looks like _sensei_ already left' Thought Naruto as he saw Kakashi was no longer in the room.

"The matches will be Dosu VS Shino, Shikamaru VS Kankuro, Gaara VS Naruto, Neji VS Temari. The winner of the final fight will go against Sasuke to see who moves on to the next round." The thirds statement made both Temari and Neji look angry as they had to potentially fight one more opponent to reach the first round. "You have a month to train do not waste the opportunity." The Third left and soon the ANBU led them all out of the forest and in two hours everyone made it out and went their own way. Ino ran towards Naruto who was already leaving.

"Hey, Naruto! Don't you remember, you promised to tell me what happened." Naruto cursed inwardly as he was already tired and just wanted to go home and rest.

"Fine." Ino looked happy. "But not here." Ino's faced dropped.

"If not here than where?" Her voice was irritated.

"My house." Ino's face was red, though Naruto couldn't tell if it was because of anger or embarrassment.

"There is no way I'm going to your house!" Naruto looked calmly at Ino.

"Then I guess you don't want to know what happened." Ino bit her lip and sighed.

"Fine, but no funny business Naruto!" Naruto rolled his eyes and made his way to his favorite food stand with Ino on his heels. Ino noticed how some of the villagers would glare at Naruto behind his back. "Wait, what are we doing here?''

"I haven't eaten a decent meal in a week and I'm taking some home. I don't feel like cooking tonight." Naruto's response completely floored Ino.

"You can cook?" Naruto stopped and looked at his fellow blond.

"Ino, I've been living by myself since I was six. Of course I know how to cook." Ino stopped walking for a second before following the other blond. "Do you want something Ino?" Ino snapped out of her thoughts and she noticed they had made it to their destination. Ino stopped her instant refusal, she like Naruto hadn't eaten in a week so she said yes before remembering she didn't have any money. Naruto just shook his head. "Don't worry about it I got it covered. I'll be back soon." Naruto walked into the stand and soon came out with two containers. It took another 20 minutes of walking before making it to Naruto's apartment. Ino noticed he lived in one of the more run-down parts of town. "Well, here we are." Naruto said as he opened the door. Ino looked around and saw a kitchen living room combo and two doors ones she was assuming was to the bathroom and his bedroom. The apartment was sparsely decorated with a single worn coach in front of an older TV. There was a table with two chairs in the kitchen area.

"You only have two chairs?" Ino's question had come out before she could stop herself. Naruto had set the containers down on the table as he pulled out bowls and chopsticks.

"I don't really need more than that. Your actually the first person to come in here who isn't old man Hokage." Ino always forgot the close relation her fellow blond had with their Hokage. Ino sat in one of the chairs and they ate dinner in silence when they were done Ino finally asked Naruto what happened. The whiskered blond took a deep breath before answering.

"We were attacked by Orochimaru." Ino let out a gasp. "He blew me away with a massive wind jutsu and I had to deal with a snake summon before I could make my way back to help the others. He just toyed with us until he placed a seal on me that messed with my chakra. Then he brought out this weird sword and was about to hit Sasuke with it when he substituted with me." Ino spoke out in defense of the Uchiha.

"There's no way Sasuke would do that!"

"Why would I lie Ino." Naruto's even tone caught her flat footed and she involuntarily glanced at his chest where she knew his scar lay. Ino sat quietly unable to comprehend how someone could use a comrade like that.

"He bit Sasuke and left, I'm pretty sure those weird markings are his doing. He has a mark where he bit him. Then Sakura abandoned me in the forest, where I bleed out for a while until I managed to close the wound." Both blonds sat in the kitchen the street lights outside already on as the sun had gone out. "C'mon Ino, I'll walk you home it's already late." Ino looked up and simply nodded.

"Wait, what about the seal on your stomach? Did you get it removed?" Said Ino.

"I got the seal he placed on me removed. The third took care of it when I went to go get treated after my match" The two blonds left and Ino once again noticed some people who glared at her fellow blond, they all looked away when Naruto glared back.

"Why do they glare at you, did you pull a prank on all of them?" Naruto looked at Ino.

"I might tell you some other day, I've reached my limit for sharing for a day." Soon the two blonds reached the Yamanaka Flower shop as it acted as the front entrance to their clan compound.

"I'll see you around Ino." Naruto turned and walked back to his home but he heard Ino mutter.

"Thanks for walking me home Naruto." The blond quickly took to the roofs and made his way home where he showered and got in bed.

'I need to talk to Kakashi to see if he's actually going to train me.' Naruto let out a small snort. 'Probably not, I need to go to the old man and see if he has anything that could help with my training. I need to work on my jutsu arsenal and my fighting style the shadow clones will help speed things up. I need to really step up my training to deal with Gaara.' He then put a hand on his stomach. 'I need to get stronger.' With that final thought, Naruto went to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Training **

Naruto woke up early in the morning and began his early morning rituals, once he was finished he made two clones one to go look for Kakashi and the other to go buy supplies he was short on in his home. He told his clone to check the hospital where Sasuke would be staying as that was the best bet to find his team sensei. Naruto started making his way to the Hokage tower to see if the old man could help him with something specific. He took his time admiring the early machinations of the village he ended up walking by an orphanage and saw the kids playing in the jungle gym nearby. He felt a pang of sympathy and decided he could spare some time to play with some of the kids who looked downtrodden. 'It's not like the Hokage is going anywhere.'

The air in the hospital was stale. 'Man boss is so lucky he doesn't have to be here' The clone of Naruto had been waiting for half an hour he had seen his teammate come by looking like she had been crying with a bouquet of flowers. She had not acknowledged him and he was fine with that too. It was then that he had seen Kakashi walk in his famous orange book in hand. "Hello Naruto here to see Sasuke?" Kakashi's tone was almost lazy.

"No, I came here for you. I was wonder-" Naruto was cut off by Kakashi.

"I know what you're going to ask Naruto and I am sorry. I'm already planning on training Sasuke for the month I don't have time to help you too." Kakashi looked up from his book. "Honestly, you should forfeit the match Naruto, Gaara could kill you and I don't think you're ready yet."

"Yeah, boss figured he you would say that." Kakashi looked startled as his student popped.

Naruto had just was making his way up to the Hokage's office when the memory of his clones hit him. The blond just sighed sadly as he felt a pang in his chest. He was expecting Kakashi to blow him off for Sasuke, he had not expected him to tell him to give up, that stung. He had already talked to the receptionist and after a 5-minute wait, he was called in. "Hello Naruto how are you." The thirds voice was always calming to Naruto it was the one constant he had in his life.

"I'm doing ok, but I need your help, old man." The third simply nodded signifying the blond should continue. "Can you help me learn the Five element seal counter? The seal completely messed up my chakra I need to be able to remove it if I ever get hit by it again."

The third took a moment to study the blond before he nodded. "The easiest way to learn the counter is to learn the technique." The third reached down into his drawer and pulled out a book about the same size as Kakashi's Make-Out Tactics. "This is a book on beginner level fuinjutsu. If you can read this book and master the basics in here I can help you learn the five element sealing technique." The third handed the book to Naruto who glanced at the title '_Fuinjutsu for dummies by Tobirama Senju'_ before he skimmed it. From what he could see it was a lot of theory and penmanship practice along with explaining how symbols interact with each other.

"Thanks, old man," Naruto said with a smile.

"So do you have a training schedule for the month yet?" The third questioned the blond.

Naruto let out a frown. "Yeah, I'm going to hit the archives and see if I can learn some more jutsus, while my clones work on them and more chakra control I'm going to be working on my speed. " The third let out a small smile.

"It sounds like Kakashi is taking full advantage of your shadow clones to train you." Naruto shook his head.

"No, Kakashi isn't training me this month he's too busy with Sasuke." The third also frowned. Before inhaling with his pipe.

"Naruto do you know your nature affinity?" The third sighed when he saw the blond look at him in pure confusion. "Naruto nature affinities determine what elemental jutsu you are most suited too."

"Does that mean if I have a fire affinity I can't learn any other jutsu other than fire style?" The third smiled at Naruto remembering his days as a sensei.

"No, it just means fire style will be the easiest for you to learn. What nature element where you planning on learning?" Naruto looked at the third with determination blazing in his eyes.

"All of them." The third Hokage choked as he inhaled too quickly on his pipe.

"Are you sure about that my boy? Mastering all the elements is incredibly difficult." Naruto looked out the window to the village below before answering.

"I know but the man I respect the most did it and I want to follow in his footsteps." The third looked confused.

"The Fourth wasn't known for using all the elements." Naruto looked back towards the third.

"I know, but you are." The third looked confused, contemplating the young blonds answer.

"I thought the Fourth was your favorite Hokage?" Naruto looked down before speaking in a quiet voice.

"He's my favorite hero. He was always a fictional character in my mind, a perfect image to strive for." Naruto paused and the third kept his entire focus on the blond. "I grew up hearing stories of him, but all those mean nothing to the impact you've had. I've always looked up to you, you gave me hope when things were at their darkest. I could always count on you to be there for me even though you're so busy with the village. I want to be Hokage not to acknowledged but because I want to be what you are to me and so many other people. I want to be the pillar people depend on when they can't go on anymore. I don't know when I lost myself or my goal but I need to get stronger to protect you and this village you've sacrificed so much for." Naruto had turned away from the third during his speech and he missed the single tear that ran down his cheek. The third cleared his eyes and went over to the blond to give him a hug. The two stayed like that for a moment before the third moved back to his chair. He then reached into his drawer again and pulled out a scroll and a piece of paper.

"Well I can't train you personally but I think I can help you move in the right direction. Push your chakra into this." The third handed Naruto a the piece of paper, as soon as the blond channeled charka through the paper is split in two with a part of the paper crumbling to dust. "Well, it looks like you have a wind affinity with a minor earth one. Wind is the most offensive element with earth being the most defensive." The third started writing in the scroll and five minutes later he handed that to the blond as well. "I wrote a jutsu for each element except for your nature affinities, I put down two for each along with the body flicker jutsu and a variation of the shadow clone I invented. It's called the shuriken shadow clone jutsu and it works just like the shadow clone jutsu except it does it to your shuriken as the name suggests. As for the body flicker, I saw you've been using a bastardized version when you move so those two shouldn't give you too much trouble. You'll also notice I gave you another chakra control exercise in there along the basic ways to train your affinities. Promise me you'll be careful when you're out there training Naruto." Naruto tackled the third and whispered a quiet thank you, his voice flush with emotion. The third patted his head and held him. The blond let him go and looked him straight in the eye.

"I won't let you down old man"

"I know you won't Naruto." The blond left the office full of determination he made his way to a popular store that sold ninja gear. 'My jumpsuit is ruined might as well get a new outfit.' He barely paid attention to the sells girl as he picked up some black pants along with a dark green shirt. He then noticed the store had a burnt orange short sleeved hooded jacket. The final items he picked up were some dark brown ninja sandals and a new black cloth for his headband. He made a clone that took his new purchases home and gave him the book on sealing telling him to get started reading it. He made his way to training ground 7 and quickly pulled out the scroll the third had given him as he saw the list of jutsu along with a note.

_Naruto here is the list of jutsu for each of the elements:_

_*Earth Style: Practice Brick Jutsu D-rank Hand seals: Ram → Tiger → Snake → Dog → Rat → Ox → Horse → Rabbit→ Tiger → Boar →Snake_

_Creates a weak wall made of earth perfect for learning earth style. (Learn before mud wall)_

_*Earth Style: Mud wall Jutsu B-rank Hand seals: Tiger → Hare → Dog_

_Creates a strong earth wall, can be used by spitting out mud user creates or using preexisting earth. Hardness varies depending on the chakra used. _

_*Wind Style: Breakthrough Jutsu D-rank Hand seals: Dog → Horse → Bird _

_The user gathers wind chakra in their stomach and releases a strong gust of wind that can knock people away. (learn before Great Breakthrough) _

_*Wind Style: Great Breakthrough Jutsu C-rank Hand seals: Tiger → Ox → Dog→ Rabbit → Snake_

_The user breathes wind out of the mouth, the power varies depending on the skill of user and amount of chakra used._

_*Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu C-rank Hand seals: Snake → Ram → Monkey → Boar → Horse → Tiger_

_User Turns chakra into fire inside their body and releases it in a giant ball. The more chakra used the more fire produced._

_*Water Style: Raging Waves Jutsu C-rank Hand seals: Dragon → Tiger → Hare_

_The user spits out a large amount of water from their mouth with enough pressure to knock human targets away. Amount changes with chakra used_

_*Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder Jutsu C-rank Hand seals: Boar → Ram → Snake → Horse → Dragon_

_The user gathers lightning chakra into their hands that surges forward when touching the ground. Power varies from small shock to lethal dosage with the amount of chakra used_

_You can practice basic nature transformation by grabbing a leaf to channel the element. For wind, you need to split the leaf with your chakra. For earth, you need to take a leaf and dry it out with earth chakra. For fire, you need to burn the leaf. For water, you need to make the leaf soggy, and for lightning, you must make the leaf curl into itself. Here are the other two Jutsu you can learn. Eventually, you will be able to tell the difference in the elemental chakra, that is the main goal. As you progress try to imagine the element you are trying to channel in your mind._

_*Ninja Arts: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu A-rank Hand seals: Ox → Dog → Dragon →Rat → Dog → Boar →Snake → Tiger_

_The user uses their chakra to clone an object that is thrown. (This jutsu works for Kunai and other thrown projectiles)_

_*Ninja Arts: Body Flicker D-rank Hand seals: Tiger_

_The user floods the body with chakra to temporarily vitalize themselves to move at an incredibly high speed._

_There is another chakra control exercise you can learn called water walking, it is like the tree climbing you already learned on your mission to wave but much harder as you must constantly change the amount of chakra flowing to your feet._

_I hope this helps you achieve your goals Naruto, I will always believe in you _

_\- Hiruzen Sarutobi The Third Hokage_

_PS. Try combining jutsu together._

Naruto made 30 clones and separated them into groups of five and each group went to work on a nature transformation and water walking. He made another ten clones and had them spare with him and help him with more physical exercises. Naruto had worked till sundown where he started popping his clones and got their memories back. He had made some progress with water walking, wind and earth nature transformation was going at a decent pace compared to the other elements but he had made minimal progress. 'Well, he did say it was going to be difficult.' Naruto made his way home to rest.

Naruto spent the first week honing his chakra control, he had upped his clones to 40 a day, on the second day he made the new clones work on the body flicker and the shadow shuriken jutsus and by the fifth day he had managed to occasionally sense the difference between each of the elements. Each day he drove himself into the ground with physical exercise and he had started sparring with 10 clones at a time to help him sharpen his instincts, he would look for a style but it would go against his free-flowing nature. Tomorrow Naruto would start the new week and have his clones move on to practicing the jutsus themselves. Naruto was currently walking home from another grueling day of training reading the book the third gave him. He had made sure to make an additional clone before he began training to read the book while he trained. Naruto was pulled out of his reading by the voice of his female teammate.

"What, are you trying to copy Kakashi sensei now Naruto?" Naruto looked up from his book to see both Ino and Sakura standing in front of him.

"No, I just can't waste any time if I want to finish this before the month is up." Naruto noticed it they were coming from the direction of his apartment. "Why are you guys in this part of town?"

Ino took the chance to speak up. "Well, forehead and I have been trying to find you to see if you needed any help with training we heard how Kakashi-sensei took Sasuke away for the month to train." She then turned to Sakura and made a go-ahead motion.

"Yeah, I also wanted to take this as an opportunity to make up for what happened in the forest." Sakura had pure sincerity in her voice. Naruto took a moment before answering he was still mad at his team but he didn't like holding grudges so he would take the olive branch.

'Not that I'm going to forget what happened.' thought Naruto. "I appreciate the offer but I don't think you can help me train." Ino and Sakura looked offended. Naruto seeing the looks explained. "Unless you guys can help me with my nature transformation you really can't do much aside from some sparring." Both girls quickly lost their looks of anger and replaced them looks of wonder.

"You're doing nature transformation training? What are your elements?" Ino's asked the question both she and Sakura wanted to ask.

"Ino, I'm not going to tell you, if Shikamaru wins his match he's going to be my opponent in the next round." Naruto answer brought Ino down before she nodded reluctantly. Sakura looked at the book with interest.

"Well, maybe we can help you with whatever it is your reading?" Sakura's suggestion was then met with an irate Ino.

"Wait a moment you're not reading anything like what Kakashi reads are you Naruto." Sakura blushed a deep crimson as her earlier words came back to her. Naruto sighed to himself as he showed the book to the girls trying to avoid the explosion of anger that was Ino and Sakura.

"No, it's a book on fuinjutsu. I'm trying to learn the technique that _he _used on me so if I ever get hit with it again I can remove it myself." Sakura looked at the book and whistled at how complex it is.

"This is really complex, how can you understand it." Sakura back peddled. "That came out wrong" Naruto shrugged.

"I don't know, most of it just kinda clicks for me. It's kinda like building a puzzle." Naruto seeing he was already late decided to head home. "Anyway, I need to head home I'll see you guys later." With a speedy goodbye, the trio made their way home. Naruto entered his home and saw a scroll on his table, he made a clone and he opened the scroll once he saw it was safe he popped the clone and took the scroll.

_Naruto, please come to my office tomorrow around noon. I have a person who wants to meet you - Hiruzen Sarutobi The Third Hokage_

Naruto set the scroll down and did his evening rituals before going to bed where he got into a meditative pose and began feeling his Chakra. Naruto found himself in a familiar sewer.

"**So you've come back.**" Naruto looked at the massive nine-tailed fox that was sealed in his stomach.

"I wanted to speak with you, I wanted to thank you for your advice when we last met." The fox looked at his container.

"**Don't bother I simply couldn't allow you to make such a fool of yourself out there.**" Naruto sat down and stared at the fox.

"I never Introduced myself, I'm Naruto Uzumaki. Nice to meet you" Naruto smiled at the big fox who exhaled and blew the blond onto his back.

"**You've already proven yourself far more polite than many of your kind. Now be gone, you've picked up an annoying habit of interrupting my sleep.**" Naruto nodded and found himself back in his room.

Naruto went to the training ground and made 51 clones. Five groups of five would work on the elemental jutsu, ten would work finishing the body flicker and the shuriken shadow clone jutsu. He would have the rest working on hand seal speed and calligraphy plus the one clone who would continue reading the book. It was nearing noon when Naruto stopped his own workout and he started making his way to the Hokage's office. He went in and saw the third sitting in his chair while a white-haired ninja stood behind him. "Hello Naruto, this is-" The third was cut off as the white-haired man jumped forward and exploded into smoke. When he the smoke cleared he was standing on a big toad.

"I am known all throughout the land, ladies wish to be with me while men curse my name in envy. I am the legendary sage of Mount Myoboku. The GREAT Toad Sage JIRAYA!" Naruto stared at the old man for a solid twenty seconds before looking at the third.

"Sooo, why did you want to talk to me?" Jiraya face faulted before jumping back to his feet.

"Jiraiya and I were discussing the chuunin exams and you were brought up. He has offered to train you for the rest of the month." The third turned to Jiraiya. Who nodded.

"That's right, be amazed at my great generosity." Naruto looked at the strange man.

"What are you going to teach me." Jiraiya looked at the blond with a serious face.

"Have you ever felt like you had another cha-" Naruto knew where he was going and interrupted him with an annoyed face.

"I know about the nine-tails. And if that's all your going to teach me then I refuse." Jiraiya had a grim face.

"Listen kid, the chakra of the nine-tails is a great tool, you can't just ignore it." Naruto scowled.

"I won't, but the nine-tails chakra is just that, a tool. No matter how powerful it is if I'm not strong enough on my own then it's useless." Jiraiya was about to respond but was stopped by the third.

"He's right Jiraya if you plan on only training him on using the fox's chakra than he's better off following his own training schedule." Jiraiya let out a sigh before nodding, then he looked up with an energetic aura.

"Alright, well how about I teach you the summoning jutsu! I hold the contract for the toads." Naruto thought about it for a second before responding.

"What can I do with that?"

"The toads are some of the best summons in the world. There are many uses for them from sending long-range messages to summoning giant battle toads to help you in combat." Naruto contemplated the offer that did sound pretty amazing not to mention versatile.

"Alright, you have a deal."

"Great! Let's go then, no sense in wasting time." The blond nodded to the Jiraya and the two left with a quick goodbye to the third who told Naruto to come by at 8 so he could help him begin to learn the five element seal. The two made it to the outskirts of the village and to a very obscure training ground.

"Ok kid, first things first, you have to sign your name here in the summoning contract, whenever you want to summon a toad you have to sacrifice a bit of blood." Jiraya bit his thumb and ran through some hand seals before slamming his hand on the ground and a dog-sized toad. The toad then went up in smoke as it disappeared. Jiraiya reached behind him and pulled out his big scroll. "Just sign your name in blood and we can begin training." Naruto bit his thumb like he had seen Jiraya do and wrote his name.

'So the fourth also signed with the toads.' Naruto had noticed the name _Minato Namikaze _in the middle of his newly made name and that of Jiraiya's.

"Good the hand signs for the summoning contract are Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, and Ram." Naruto took a moment to memorize the seals before biting his thumb again and going through the seals and pouring a bit of chakra into it. "Summoning Jutsu!" There was a cloud of smoke and when it cleared it showed a small orange toad wearing a blue vest.

"Yo, My name Gamakichi." Naruto looked at the small toad with a raised eyebrow.

"Hello, names Naruto Uzumaki. I just signed the toad contract." The small toad nodded along.

"Nice to meetcha. You're lucky I came and not my brother he would have annoyed you until you gave him something to eat." Naruto nodded that would have been troublesome he didn't really feel like going back to town to get food. "Anyway, I'll let pops know we have a new summoner, later." With that Gamakichi left.

"Good, you did surprisingly well for your first time. How much chakra did you use?"

Ï used about the same amount as I do when I summon two shadow clones." Jiraiya nodded

"Alright, let's see what you can summon. This time I want you to use as much chakra as possible." Jiraiya jumped back slightly, Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated as he started gathering a large amount of chakra. He performed the Jutsu and a massive pillar of smoke could be seen.

"**Jiraya! Why the hell did you summon me you old fool!**" When the smoke cleared a gigantic rust red toad with a scar over his left eye could be seen. He was wearing a blue vest and carried a large blade on his waist, he was smoking a large pipe that was hanging from his mouth. Naruto who was on top of his head jumped down to his nose as he looked at the toad he had summoned.

'He's almost as big as the nine-tails.' thought Naruto.

"**Hmm, who are you?**" The red toad spoke.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, I'm the new summoner of the toad contract. I was practicing to see what the biggest toad I could summon was." The toad looked at the blond before letting out a laugh.

"**Hah! As if a Little pipsqueak like you could summon me.**" Naruto looked annoyed and simply jumped off the toad as he bit his thumb and ran through the hand seals again only this time he didn't hold back and was rewarded with a small poof of smoke. Naruto was breathing heavily from the amount of chakra he had used.

'That's weird I used a lot of chakra.' Naruto thought as he heard the big toad laugh. His laughter died off and was replaced with a look of shock when he saw the small old looking green toad wearing a gray cloak. The small toad looked around and quickly saw his new blond summoner.

"Why hello there young tadpole. I had sensed we had a new summoner but how did you summon me?" Naruto seeing both the giant toads shocked face along with Jiraiya as he fell from the tree he was hiding in assumed the toad in front of him was important. It did help that his instincts were screaming at him that the small toad could kick his ass better than the walking mountain.

"I don't know I summoned the big one behind you and a smaller toad named Gamakichi earlier, I told Gamakichi I was the new summoner but the big one didn't believe me so I was gonna summon another big toad and you appeared." The Green toad nodded.

"I see, you must have a lot of chakra then." Naruto nodded, he was often told how much chakra he had and how much he wasted, He had been using every trick he knew old and new to help him perfect his control.

"Yes, I have been told I have one of the biggest chakra pools in the village."

"Well my name is Fukasaku but most people call me Pa and I am one of the two great toad sages of Mount Myoboku, the other being my wife Shima, the big one behind me is Gamabunta the current head of the toad clan. When you gain a bit more experience with fighting alongside us summon me again, there is much I could teach you." Fukasaku turned to Gamabunta. "And you Bunta-boy, don't be so impolite I can't believe you haven't even introduced yourself yet!"

The now named Gamabunta nodded before offering a small apology. "We'll be seeing you tadpole, don't hesitate to call on us if you ever need help." With his parting words both toads left. It was a very quiet Jiraiya that was left with Naruto.

"I can't believe you managed to summon Pa." Naruto just shook his head and the two spent the rest of the day by summoning various other toads and how they could be used in combat Jiraya also demonstrated how they could do collaboration jutsu with them. The blond spent the next two weeks working on his other jutsu along with his chakra control and his hand seal speed. Every other day he would go to the Third and practice the five element seal. Naruto spent the last week training to see how to best use his newly acquired arsenal in a fight and working with certain toads on combination jutsus. He also spent time polishing everything he knew had learned. He had also discovered on complete accident that if he flooded his arm with earth chakra it would turn black and he could easily punch through trees. Naruto had made some pretty devastating attacks when combining certain jutsus together, it got worse when he added the toads and their ability to use water style jutsu along with being able to spit out oil. The day of the finals Naruto put on his new gear. The dark green shirt matched well with his burnt orange hoodie that he kept unzipped. His new black headband cloth was longer than his old blue one and his new black pants had more pockets. Naruto walked calmly to the arena and saw the stands were already full. He was the third last to arrive with both the sound ninja Dosu and his teammate Sasuke missing. He looked to the crowd and managed to see most of his once classmates were sitting together. He saw a jonin with a bandana and long brown bangs. He was chewing on a senbon. Soon the arena quieted as the third sat up from his chair in the viewing booth alongside the Kazekage.

"Ladies and gentlemen I'd like to thank you all for coming to the finals of the chuunin exams!" The crowd roared as the third raised his hands in showmen ship.

'Here we go' Thought Naruto as he felt the air buzz with excitement as the finals began.

**AN/**

hey readers of the internet. First I'd like to thank you guys who have been enjoying the story. I really appreciate any feedback you guys have for me to help me improve my writing, so again thank you for that. This is my first big story, I wrote two very small short stories but even a single chapter of this story is longer than both of them combined.

I know some people have asked for longer chapters and I really don't see myself doing that yet. I've gotten into a pretty good rhythm and the chapters always more or less come out around 4,000 words. good news is just finished writing chapter 11 so I have a bit of backlog in chapters that I can put out as soon as I finish going over them for any mistakes.

As for pairings. I am conflicted. Like, the scene with Ino just kinda wrote itself and I really hadn't planned on any romance especially so suddenly.

Another thing I'd like to address is that people brought up how sudden Naruto's change was, and for the most part they're right but next time I do a story like this I'll fix it, it was a matter of me just not having the experience yet in writing. I also didn't want to make Naruto overpowered, I wanted to make him more competent and with how he grew up I feel like he would be more mature and sensible than in canon, and I apologize for making him to strong so fast. The same thing happens with my pacing I don't want to drag out parts but that will get better as the story progresses.

The final thing I wanted to talk about was following canon plot. Certain parts need to happen for example the invasion, I'm already starting to split from canon and I plan to go somewhere new after the Sasuke retrieval arc but even then I'm trying to change things up depending on how the characters would react to this new Naruto.

Once again thanks for reading and any constructive criticism helps a lot.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: The Results of training**

The cheering of the crowd was almost deafening, the arena floor was mostly sparse of green save for a single tree near the edge. Naruto looked at the Hokage as he raised his hand up, the crowd's cheering died down, the proctor of the exam used the moment to come forward. "Hello everyone and welcome to the chuunin exam finals. There are going to be some minor changes before we begin, Dosu Kinuta is no longer participating in the finals and as such, Sasuke Uchiha shall take his place in the first match, so everyone but Shino Aburame and Sasuke Uchiha please make your way up to the viewing area so we can begin." Naruto followed Shikamaru up to the viewing area and everyone waited for Sasuke to show up. The crowd was starting to get restless and after five minutes he could see the Hokage and Kazekage speak before sending a messenger to the proctor. "As Sasuke Uchiha is not here yet we shall move the first match back until all other fights are done. If Sasuke Uchiha is not here by then he will be disqualified. The crowd let out soft boos but most stayed quiet, Naruto could see people were miffed that he had not shown up yet. "Will Shikamaru Nara and Kankuro of the sand please make their way down."

"I forfeit!" Yelled Kankuro to the proctor

Naruto's head snapped to the puppet wielder as every alarm in his head was blaring that this was not normal. The crowd already unhappy started booing hard. 'What is he up to? You don't just quit in the finals.' The proctor took a minute to try and calm the crowd as he proclaimed Shikamaru the winner and called the next two participants.

"Would Naruto Uzumaki and Gaara of the sand please make their way down." Naruto started making his way to the arena but was stopped by Shino and Shikamaru.

"You should give up Naruto that guy is something different." Shikamaru said as Shino nodded along. "That is correct. His chakra is vile and corrosive. My bugs won't go near him it reminds me of how they would sometimes act with you." The words meant little to Shikamaru who didn't understand the full weight of Shino's statement. Naruto simply nodded with an annoyed frown before heading down and as soon as he was standing in front of Gaara the crowd exploded in a cheer as they were finally going to see some action. Gaara was releasing some serious killing intent and Naruto who was already annoyed by his former classmates decided to respond in kind. The arena was filled with killing intent and some of the cheering died down as they felt the tension in the air. Gaara let out a cruel smile when he felt the blonds own killing intent. The proctor asked if both Naruto and Gaara were ready and as he received a nod from both he jumped back.

"BEGIN." As soon as the proctor spoke Naruto raised his left hand in a half ram seal and used the body flicker to get behind Gaara, he pulled a kunai out with his right hand and tried to slam it into his head from behind but was stopped by the sand. Gaara turned to look at him as the sand lashed out.

"If that's all you can do mother will be disappointed." Naruto jumped back to avoid the sand.

"I know I just needed to see how quickly that sand reacted up close." Gaara raised his hand and a tendril of sand was sent to Naruto. The blond quickly went through hand seals and inhaled deeply. "Wind Style: Great breakthrough!" Naruto unleashed a gale of wind that dispersed the sand and was headed towards Gaara but was stopped by a wall of sand that came directly from his gourd. 'Looks like the sand from his gourd is of better quality than the sand he gets from the ground.' Gaara let out another smile.

"Mother wants your blood, she screams at me. SHE WANTS YOUR BLOOD!" Gaara raised his arms up. "Sand Shuriken!" Sand had gathered in front of Gaara and then shot out at high speeds to the blond. Naruto avoided the barrage of sand and created three clones that circled around Gaara so he was surrounded. He and his clones went through the same hand seals and all four blonds could be heard shouting.

"Water Style: Raging Waves!" Each blond let out pressurized blasts of water and the Gaara's gourd exploded and formed a sphere around him. 'Good it's working.' Naruto thought to himself as he watched the sand became muddy as puddles formed on the ground. He stopped his assault and saw most of Gaara's sand was now wet. Naruto and his clones rushed the redhead and his sand came up much slower than before to stop the clones who attacked first, Naruto saw an opening and kicked Gaara in the face and sent him to the ground. Sand exploded from underneath Gaara as a crazed look came to his eye. His charka darkened and felt familiar to the blond. 'So he is like me.'

"Yes! You can prove my existence!." Gaara sent large waves at the blond who used his shadow clones as distractions. Naruto and his clones would use the body flicker to move in fast and strike at Gaara. While Naruto wasn't as quick as Lee he made up for it by attacking at multiple angles at the same time with his clones. Naruto saw two of his clones attack as Gaara raised his sand to defend, he quickly appeared behind the Sand ninja a hit him sending him stumbling back. This pattern continued for a couple of minutes. After the fifth hit, Gaara growled and made a dome of sand around himself and the blond sent a clone to attack it only to be destroyed as a sand spear grew out of the orb. The crowd had been going crazy as they watched such an amazing match and cheered even louder when Naruto tried his great breakthrough and a fireball jutsu to try and pierce the orb.

"Damn, I was hoping that would be enough." Naruto summoned two clones and bit his thumb before blazing through same hand seals. "Summoning Jutsu!" The crowd was near deafening as Naruto summoned a large toad almost a big as himself. The Toad was velvet and was wearing a brown vest.

"Hello, Naruto." The velvet toad spoke.

"Hey Gamataro, do you think you could give me some oil?" The Toad nodded and he and his clones ran through seals. If one would look closely they would notice that his clones used different seals than that of their creator. And as one Naruto and his clones Inhaled and so did Gamataro.

"Ninja Arts: Toad Oil Bullet!"

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

Naruto unleashed his fireball as it was powered up massively by his clones wind jutsu, this caused the fire to turn from a warm yellow to a searing blue that was once more augmented by the toad's oil hitting it. The Blue wave of fire transformed into a blazing white inferno that caused many in the crowd to yelp in fright as the heat reached them. Naruto could see from the corner of his eye he could see other ninja looking on amazed that a genin had such a devastating combination his arsenal. Naruto kept up the hellish flame attack up for 30 seconds before stopping. When the flames cleared he could see the sand orb had been turned to glass as a badly burned Gaara screamed inside. The blond dashed to the orb before signaling his clones to use another jutsu. He waved at Gamataro as he went back home. Naruto gathered earth chakra into his right arm turning it black before hitting the glass orb shattering it. Behind him, he could hear shouts of the clones using their water jutsu as Gaara was blasted back towards the single tree in the arena. Gaara slowly stood up absolutely soaked and full of third-degree burns. "It hurts. MOTHER IT HURTS!" Gaara kept screaming as Naruto casually walked forward as he made some hand seals and stopped about 10 feet in front the red-head as he brought his hand down on the giant puddle he was standing on him.

"Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder." A surge of electricity ran across the water and Gaara was hit with the full force of the water enhanced lightning jutsu. After ten seconds Gaara fell down unconscious. Naruto's eyes widened as he felt the buildup of the tailed beasts chakra inside of Gaara and before anyone could react Naruto vanished as he slammed his hand into Gaara stomach, his fingers lit with glowing kanji. "Five Element Seal!" Naruto felt the chakra disappear and there he could feel the arena shake as the crowd went crazy again. Naruto could see many ninja tense at the feeling of the demons chakra before they relaxed slightly when it disappeared. Naruto could here Temari screaming for her brother as she and Kankuro rushed towards him as the medics took him away.

"Winner of the third match, Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto made his way back to the viewing area and was met with the shocked faces of his classmates. The proctor allowed the crowd to gossip about the match before quieting them and calling the next match. "Would Neji Hyuga and Temari of the sand please make their way down. Naruto saw Neji make his way to the arena as Temari came out of the tunnels leading to the med bay. The Proctor jumped away as he told them to begin.

"You should give up, your no match for me." Neji's voice was clearly heard by all and Naruto let out a small frown.

'I don't know if I want him to win so I can kick his ass or lose and get humiliated by Temari.' thought Naruto.

"Just keep talking! We'll see who comes out on top." Temari opened up her fan fully and swung hard. A blast of wind barreled at Neji who activated his byakugan to and was able to see the wind chakra race towards him. The leaf ninja rolled away and he dashed towards the sand kunoichi as she once again sent waves of wind at him. Neji jumped away and closed the distance as he sent a palm strike to the blond that was blocked by her fan. Temari used her fan as a club as she tried to jump back only for Neji to duck under the swing and hit her several times in her arms and shoulders. Neji then continued his attack and Temari was peppered with finger jabs all over her body before she was sent flying back with a palm strike to her chest.

"This match is over I've closed all the chakra points in your arm you can no longer fight." Temari slowly raised herself and swung her open fan only for nothing to happen. With a look of frustration, she looked over and muttered to the proctor.

"I forfeit." Neji let out a smirk.

"Winner Neji Hyuga." The majority of the crowd clapped politely and some even cheered even when the match was a lot shorter than the last one and not as exciting. "Will Sasuke Uchiha and Shino Aburame please make their way to the arena." Shino stood silently as they waited for the Uchiha and after five minutes the crowd started booing as they were offended that Sasuke had not shown himself yet. It was after another five minutes that the crowds booing reached a new level as the crowd became unsettled. Seeing the crowd react the Proctor turned to the Hokage who nodded. "Sasuke Uchiha is disqualified and the winner of the match is Shino Aburame." The crowd cheered as they felt that the Uchiha deserved the disqualification for making them wait. Naruto just shook his head seeing his sensei and teammate not show up. "Would Shino Aburame and Shikamaru Nara please come down, we shall now commence the second round of the finals." Naruto watched as his two classmates stood across from each other as they eyed themselves. "If both fighters are ready. Begin." The Shikamaru made a hand seal as his shadow extended and Shino jumped back and let his bugs leave from under his coat. It became a game of cat and mouse as the two avoided their respective jutsus. Shikamaru brought out multiple kunai as he began throwing them at Shino at random intervals. The bug user calmly deflected the kunai when he saw that some of the kunai had seal tags on them. There were several bright flashes showing that the tags where actually flash bangs, Shino covered his eyes with his arm when he felt himself stop suddenly.

"I got you now Shino." Shikamaru had used the opening the flash bangs had created to extend his shadow and capture Shino.

"You may have caught me but this is my victory. Why? Because my bugs are all around you waiting for my command to attack." Shikamaru looked down and saw hundreds of bugs crawling in the dirt around him.

"What a troublesome opponent, proctor I forfeit." Shikamaru sighed and the proctor called the match. As the two leaf Ninja shook hands before Shino made his way back to the viewing area.

"You did well to last so long. It was unfortunate I was your opponent, it was a bad match up." Said Shino.

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting to fight you at all, this was so troublesome." The proctor spoke up as soon as both genins left he addressed the crowd.

"Would Neji Hyuga and Naruto Uzumaki make their way down." Naruto body flickered down and stood in front of Neji as the two glared at each other.

"You only made it this far because of luck, but this is where it ends. Fate declared you the loser when you were matched against me." Naruto said nothing and simply got into his fighting stance. "What, too scared to respond." Neji tried to mock Naruto again.

"Proctor start the match." Naruto never turned away from Neji as he spoke to the proctor as Neji glared at the blond.

"If both fighters are ready. Begin!" As the proctor jumped away Neji spoke once more.

"I shall give you one final chance to give u-" Neji had to duck as Naruto used the body flicker and blurred to Neji and tried to kick him. Neji spun and tried to palm strike Naruto only to be sucker punched by a clone of Naruto. Neji backflipped as he rolled with the punch as he activated his byakugan. He saw there were four Naruto's circling him he couldn't tell which one was the original as they all had the same amount of chakra. Two clones ran at him as he spun and deflected their attacks he tried to counter them only to be interrupted by a third. He saw that another Naruto was running through hand seals and Neji heard him shout out the name of the jutsu.

"Water Style: Raging Waves!" Neji saw the attack coming and channeled chakra all over his body as he couldn't dodge as the other clones were blocking his escape. He began spinning as he released his stored chakra.

"Rotation!" Neji was covered in a dome of spinning chakra and as he blocked the water jutsu, the clones that were near him were knocked back and dispelled from the hit. Neji stopped spinning and glared at the blond. The crowd cheered seeing another flashy fight. "You might have gotten past Gaara's defenses but the Hyuga ultimate defense is unbreakable." Naruto scoffed before making three clones and sending two at Neji, as they engaged him in a taijutsu match he pulled out two shurikens and threw them as he and his clone ran through hand seals. The two clones fighting Neji dispersed and coated the area with smoke.

"Wind Style: Breakthrough!"

"Ninja Arts: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!" The two shuriken Naruto threw picked up speed as they were hit with the wind before multiplying, the two shuriken became two dozen and Neji unable to dodge due to the new speed of the shuriken once again used his rotation. As Neji was slowing down he was hit in the side by a clone as he was unable to avoid because of his spinning, another clone hit him into the air and Neji was met with two Naruto's as they hit him with their right and left fists as he was sent down to the ground. Neji bounced before flipping to his feet. The Hyuga was bleeding from his mouth and was panting slightly. "So Neji, is this the part where I give up? After all, isn't my fate to be defeated today?" Naruto's words caused the Hyuga to stew in rage.

"You know nothing! Our fates have been decided since before we were born." Neji reached up and untied his headband to show a seal on his forehead. "This seal binds me as a member of the Hyuga side-branch. I was bra-" Neji was interrupted by a kunai that was thrown by Naruto.

"I don't give a shit. Your barking up the wrong tree if you want to compare seals that bind you. If you want to talk then give up. Just because something bad happened to you doesn't give you the right to be a prick to innocent people." Neji was consumed by rage and sprinted at Naruto who deflected all his strikes and jumped back. Neji lowered his stance with both arms stretched out one lower than the other. Naruto heard some of the Hyugas that were in the stands gasp.

"It's over! You're within my range! Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Palms! Two Palms!" Neji sent out two finger jabs that were dodged by the blond. "Four Palm! This time the strikes came faster and the blond had more trouble dodging them. "Eight Palm!" The speed once again increased as the blond had to deflect some strikes unable to dodge all of them. "Sixteen Palm!" Naruto had to channel chakra to increase his speed as he ducked and weaved through the strikes, Neji's face slowly contorting into an ugly mask of hate as he couldn't land a hit. "Sixty Four Palms!" Neji's hands almost blurred and Naruto was able to deflect all the strikes. The final hit Neji sent was a palm strike that Naruto spun around and delivered a devastating elbow strike to the side of Neji's head. He stumbled and Naruto took advantage as he kneed him in the stomach before grabbing him and throwing him at the wall of the arena where he channeled earth chakra into his fist and launched a punch at Neji. The older genin just barely moved out of the way as Naruto's punch cracked the wall. Neji got his balance back in time to block a kick that sent him skidding back. Naruto created five clones as he rushed Neji and Neji was barely able to defend himself from the blonds onslaught. Two clones came behind Neji and kicked him forward as another close-lined him as he fell to the ground as three Narutos dropped on him with their knees. Neji spits up blood as his eyes rolled back into his head. Naruto dispelled his clones and the crowd went crazy. He could see his teammate Sakura cheer on with Ino beside her as the platinum blond pointed at him enthusiastically.

"Winner, Naruto Uzumaki!" The crowd continued to cheer and the proctor had to call them down. "We will now have a thirty-minute intermission to allow the finalist rest before conducting the final fig-" The proctor was stopped as two people used the body flicker to appear in the middle of the arena.

"Sorry we're not late are we?" Naruto could do nothing but sigh as he looked at his late team members. Kakashi looked the same as always, Sasuke was wearing black shorts and a black shirt. His hair had lengthened slightly and he had bandages and a belt wrapped around his left hand.

"Yes, yes you are." Naruto spoke and the two turned to face him. Kakashi's eye widened and Sasuke glared. The crowd had started booing them. The proctor stepped forward to talk to them.

"Sasuke was disqualified when he didn't show up in time for his match. You guys had ample opportunity to show up, we even moved you fight back and gave you extra time." Sasuke glared at Kakashi who simply nodded and took them away from the arena when he saw how hostile the crowd was being to them. Naruto turned to walk up to the viewing area as the proctor finished his explanation. Naruto sat down and meditated for the remaining half hour.

Naruto heard the proctor call his name alongside Shino's. The two leaf ninja stood in the arena as the crowd cheered. "This is the final fight of the chuunin exams will now commence. Are both fighters ready." Both Shino and Naruto nodded. "Begin!" The proctor jumped back and Naruto made three clones, two clones rushed Shino who let loose his bugs. The clones quickly dispersed as their chakra was drained and the bugs turned their attention to the blond. The bugs that came near the blond were burned alive as a fireball hit them curtsey of his one remaining clone. The two stood still as Shino tried to rush them blond who created two more clones and sent them at Shino after a short exchange where Shino was unable to get a hit in as the clones covered each other's weaknesses. Shino jumped back once more before looking to the proctor. "I forfeit, why? Because I am outmatched, my bugs cannot get near him without getting burned." The crowd clapped in polite applause as the proctor came forward.

"The winner of the chuunin exam finals is Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto saw the crowd explode into cheers and when he felt a weird sensation all around him. He smoothed his chakra like so many times before while meditating and saw that all the civilians had fallen asleep. His head snapped to the kages as their booth exploded and he could see sand and sound ninja attack his fellow Leaf allies. A purple barrier appeared over the kage's booth as Naruto heard the Proctor tell him to get too his sensei for orders. Naruto jumped up to the stands where he was attacked by a sound ninja. Naruto ducked under a kunai swipe as he brought out his own before jamming it into the neck of the enemy. He spotted Lee and Hinata being protected by Kiba, Sakura, Ino, and Choji. He saw Kakashi and Guy above them taking care of threats to their students and Sasuke engaging with another sand ninja on the other side of the arena. The blond saw a sound kunoichi race towards Hinata and Ino and he blurred into her path as he kicked her away while summoning a clone to take care of her. Kakashi looked at the gathered genin and saw Naruto had joined him.

"I want you all to take Lee and Hinata to the hospital and help any other ninja there in protecting it. I want you to help out any injured civilians you see along the way and escort them there. This isn't time to argue and play around consider this an A-rank mission. The genins nodded and Ino and Sakura helped Lee and Hinata as the rest formed a protective circle. They were joined by Shino, Ten-Ten, and Shikamaru as the group moved to the hospital. On the way there Naruto created 20 clones that spread out he gave them orders to hide and ambush any enemy ninja they came across. Naruto took a glance back at the tower where the glowing purple barrier stood.

'Don't you die on me old man.' Naruto thought as he made his way to the hospital.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: The Siege on the Leaf**

There was only one way to describe the state of the village as Naruto and his teammates made their way to the hospital. Chaos. Pure and utter chaos. Everywhere Naruto looked he saw battles as sound and sand ninja fought the outnumbered leaf forces 3 to one. He saw most of the leaf ninja engaging the enemies were ANBU along with the jonin. Most of the regular forces were either evacuating or protecting valuable locations like the Hokage tower or the village archive as was normal protocol for such situations. Naruto let out a grimace as he noticed how slowly they were moving through the village streets. 'We're sitting ducks out here.' So far they had rescued a total of 10 civilians that had been trapped under debris from damaged buildings or those who were too scared to move on their own. Naruto noticed a sound ninja land in front of the group going through some hand seals, the masked ninja brought his hand up to his face as he took a deep breath.

"Fire Style: Fire Bullet Jutsu!" Naruto cursed as he dashed to the front of the group as he ran through his own hand seals.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall Jutsu!" A wall of earth rose up protecting the group as the light of the fire could be seen from the other side of the earth wall. Naruto created two clones as he rushed up the side and around the wall. He rushed at the enemy ninja from different directions catching the sound ninja off guard. Naruto took a closer look at his enemy and saw he was covered from head to toe in camouflage with his hands and eyes being the only things not covered with clothing of some kind. One clone sprinted from the left as the other threw a shuriken, Naruto himself body flickered behind him as he jumped back to avoid the shuriken and the rushing clone. He was met with a kunai to the back of his head courtesy of the whiskered blond. As the sound ninja fell Naruto could see the light in his eyes get snuffed out as death claimed him. The blond took a breath to compose himself as his stomach churned with discomfort as bile threatened to escape. "I can deal with my problems later, focus." Naruto whispered to himself. The earth wall fell as the group came forward most of his classmates stared at the dead body with a mixture of emotions, many of the civilians lost their lunch as they were not used to such situations. The whole exchange lasted no more than 10 seconds. "Let's keep going." Nobody argued with the blond though the pace was significantly faster as many of the civilians picked up their pace not wanting to be out in the open longer than necessary. Naruto stumbled and almost threw up again as he got the memories of some of his clones.

'So many dead bodies' Naruto thought as he saw himself ambush several ninjas in many different ways. Some used kunai others used jutsu but the blond could remember every detail as they died. He also saw how he saved groups of civilians from attacking sound ninja, though some were not so lucky and from what he could see, some of the sound ninjas liked to play with their victims. 'They're monsters, there no better than the thugs Gato hired in Wave.' Ino who was in the middle of the group helping some of the injured move saw her fellow blond stumble.

"Are you alright?" Naruto didn't look at the platinum blond as he responded, his eyes never stopping as he scanned the area for more enemies once he centered himself.

"No, but I'll deal with it as soon as we're all safe." Ino nodded but still sent concerned glances at Naruto. Shino stepped up next to the blond as he led the group to the hospital with Shikamaru.

"I have sent a perimeter around us with my insects, it should give us ample warning to enemy movement and help us to avoid any more conflict."

"Were about 5 blocks away from the hospital." Shikamaru said to his two friends.

"Right, we need to be more careful, if we've gotten lucky that the ANBU and the other higher ranked leaf ninja have mostly cleared the area and are keeping the rest distracted." The two nodded as they went back to the right and left of the group respectively. Naruto traded places with Kiba who was now leading the group so he could sniff out any threats as the blond went to the middle so he could more easily maneuver to confront any enemy that slipped by their defenses. The group made good progress and was a block away from the hospital when they heard giant explosions coming from the edges of the village. Naruto saw that there were giant three-headed snakes attacking the walls as scores of sound ninja made their way inside the village. Naruto let out a curse as he created enough clones to carry all the civilians plus Hinata and Lee. 'There's no point in going on foot to avoid the battles if we're going to be surrounded!. Damn it!' Naruto looked at the remaining genin. "Let's go we don't want to be caught out here when the enemy reaches us!" Naruto received various nods as the group made it to the hospital, it was surrounded by other genin and scores of chuunin that were guarding the area. The injured were swiftly taken inside as the rest of the genin were set up as reserves if anyone got past the chuunin guard. Naruto saw that the snakes were taken care of by Jiraiya who had summoned some Gamabunta sized toads.

"Hey, we need a squad to come with us to search for more survivors!" The blond turned and saw a brown-haired chuunin speaking to a group of chuunins who were acting as a rear guard. Several chuunins went forward to form squads and Naruto himself also decided to volunteer so he could help out where he could. The chuunin looked at the blond before shrugging, the situation was dire and they needed all the help they could get. "Good, Right now the leaf village higher-ups are organizing a counterattack while the jonin and the ANBU hold of the enemy, we shall pick up any civilians that maybe be out there and take any injured leaf ninja back here." The chuunin looked at Naruto for a second. "This is a serious situation, while we won't be actively engaging the enemy there is no doubt fights will happen."

"I'll be fine, I can handle myself." The chuunin grunted as he turned to the group of ten chuunin.

"Let's get moving, remember that our top priority is evacuation but don't hesitate to help out anyone in need." The group started making their way to the wall and Naruto saw countless jonin and chuunin come out of nowhere along with full squadrons of ANBU, they began to push the enemy beyond the wall of the village.

It was half an hour later where Naruto had taken dozen of injured ninja away when he saw the barrier around the Hokage's booth fell. It was ten minutes after the barrier fell that the enemy forces began retreating from the village. Naruto had killed five more enemies in the time since he left with the squad of chuunin. Naruto made his way to the hospital carrying a fellow leaf ninja on his back, it was some dark-haired chuunin who had been caught by an enemies fire jutsu and had burns all over his body. The blond dropped off the older ninja whose name he didn't know at the hospital and went back to continue looking. There was still a large amount of sound ninja who had stayed even after their sand allies left. He quickly found another Leaf kunoichi fighting a group of three sound ninjas. She had wild brown hair with the rectangular face tattoos that were so famous in the Inuzuka clan. Naruto watched as she took a kunai to the leg and he quickly created five clones as he cut off the closest sound ninja. He was wielding a tanto and he was about to stab the downed kunoichi. He brought out his kunai and the steel sparked as the blades meet. He held the man back as his clone picked up the women and backed away as Naruto's other clones tag-teamed their own targets. The blond and the sound Ninja broke their struggle as the older man rushed at the shorter blond with a wide swing of his tanto. Naruto seeing this ducked under the swing only to be kneed in the face. It was only thanks to him listening to his instincts that he brought up his kunai to block a strike from the sound ninja. Naruto spun around displacing his weight making his enemy stumble forward as he slashed his knee. The sound dropped unable to support his own weight as the blond jammed his kunai into his neck and ripping it out. Naruto body flickered beside another sound ninja and as he and his clone both managed to stab him in the chest, he was taken by surprise not expecting another blond to show up and his shock was visible in his eyes as he collapsed to the ground. He turned to the final sound ninja and saw his clone kill him before all of them dispelled. Naruto walked to where his first clone and the kunoichi were at. She had the same slit eyes as Kiba. She looked at the blond with a wild smirk.

"Thanks for the save there. I usually have my ninja dogs fighting with me but they got injured earlier and I was making my way back to the hospital to see if I could help anyone there as the fighting is dying down when that group managed to ambush me. My names Hana Inuzuka"

"No problem, my name's Naruto Uzumaki. I've been helping wherever I can taking any injured I see to the hospital." The two made their way to the hospital as more and more people showed up and medical tents were set up outside to take care of those who only had flesh wounds as to leave the inside for those who truly needed it. It was already dusk when Naruto was given orders by the jonin who had taken command of the area for all genin to go home and that they would all be gathered tomorrow early at the plaza to be given further orders. Naruto barely heard the man as he started walking to his home a cold, numb feeling spread throughout his body. The news had spread started to spread recently and the entire village received terrible news.

The third Hokage had been killed in battle.

The blond entered his home and thanked his lucky stars it was intact, this area had been full of fighting and many buildings on the block had been damaged. There were plenty of people staying at the shelters for the next couple days as repairs were made from all over the village. Naruto made his way to his bed and for the first time since he was a child, he truly cried. He let out the sorrow in his soul as he thought about the man he admired most and he thought about the people he had killed, so he cried. The next days were spent mostly on auto-pilot for Naruto as he along with other genin patrolled the inside of the village as most chuunin and jonin hunted down any Sound ninja in the country. The Sand village had been very quiet after the attack and things were very tense between the two once allies. Naruto hadn't teamed up with anyone he knew during the patrols and five days after the battle the village gathered for the thirds funeral. Naruto was one of the first people to show up, he had seen Konohamaru with Ebisu and he walked next to him. The young Sarutobi took one glance at the blond before throwing himself at him as he started to bawl. Naruto patted the younger boys head as the two grieved as more and more people started to show up. It took several hours before the funeral was over, the sky began to darken as the rain started to fall. Naruto was headed home when he was tapped on his shoulder by his team sensei Kakashi. The two stared at each other as the rain pelted the two ninjas.

"We'll be meeting at 7 tomorrow. How are you holding up?" Naruto looked at Kakashi before shrugging.

"I'll live." With his quick reply Naruto body flickered away, he was in no mood to deal with his teammates right now. Naruto ended up wandering the village for a while as his mind wondered, all but the most necessary shops were closed for today as the village mourned. The village looked deserted as the rain kept pouring and by now he had been walking for an hour, he was soaked to the bone.

"Hey, Naruto." The blond turned around as he spotted Ino behind him under an umbrella, still dressed in black from the funeral.

"Hey." Ino walked closer to her fellow blond as she brought her umbrella so it could cover both of them.

"What are you doing out here, you're completely drenched." Naruto shrugged his shoulders. Ino could see how down her fellow blond looked so she took his arm and started dragging him to his home. They walked in silence with Naruto's gaze never leaving the black sky. They made it to the whiskered blonds apartment as the winds began to pick up and went inside quickly. "Go take a shower before you get sick." Ino's tone was stern and normally Naruto would put up more of a fight with being ordered around in his own home but he didn't have it in him today. Naruto came back out to Ino carrying two cups of his instant ramen. Both blonds sat on the couch as they ate in silence. Eventually, Naruto put his empty cup down as he glanced at Ino, he took a moment before speaking.

"Thanks." Naruto's voice was soft and quiet.

"You're welcome." Ino's response was also quiet as she looked around the blonds apartment. "How are you doing?" Naruto had to hold back tears as he thought about the third and all the lives he had taken the events were still fresh in his mind and today's funeral made everything real.

"I'll be fine." The platinum blond didn't believe Naruto if her face was anything to go by. She saw how he was shuddering slightly and his eyes clouded over as he tried his damnedest not to cry. Ino struggled internally before she brought him into a hug, Naruto stiffened for a moment before tears began to fall from his eyes. The two sat there for sometime before the blonds separated. "You know, the third was the only person I had growing up. When I was younger some things happened at the orphanage I was staying at that forced me to come live by myself." Ino listened closely as the blond spoke about the third. "He would come by whenever he could to check on me." Naruto let out a small watery smile. "It was a surreal experience to me at the time. Any adult I would meet would ignore me and all the children were told by their parents to stay away. Having him there was like seeing color for the first time. I asked him why he cared about me one day when he visited. It just didn't make any sense to me, who had been ignored by all others that this man would show such love. Do you know what his answer was?" Naruto turned to look at Ino who shook her head. "He told me that it was because he was Hokage and that the entire village was his family. I didn't really know what the Hokage was at the time but I wanted to be it. Can you imagine it? Having an entire village as your family. It was an amazing dream. As I grew I learned what the Hokage was and what they did. My dream never changed but my reason did. I originally wanted to be Hokage because then I'd have a massive family, and as a 6-year old orphan that was an amazing concept. When I got older I wanted to be Hokage so I could protect him, so I could protect the Ichirakus who feed me on days I didn't have enough money because I mismanaged it." Naruto looked at Ino who was staring intently at him. "But I failed. He was my hero and I wasn't there to help him when he needed it the most." Naruto clenched his fist in self-hate.

"You can't blame yourself for that Naruto. From what I heard even the ANBU couldn't get through that weird purple barrier. There was nothing any of us could have done." Ino brought the blond into another hug. "He would be proud of you."

"I just miss him so much." Naruto's voice was soft as he said this. He looked at his fellow blond as he spoke. "Thank you Ino."

"You're welcome." The two sat there quietly as the storm outside continued to rage on and eventually the two fell asleep as the day's fatigue took its toll.

The two blonds woke up the next morning with Ino resting her head on Naruto's shoulder and the whiskered blond resting his head on hers. Ino groaned as she saw had fallen asleep.

"My parents are going to kill me." Naruto got up and stretched as he made his way over to the kitchen and started making breakfast. He looked at the other blond who sprawled herself on his couch.

"Do you want any eggs?" Ino groaned again before responding.

"Scrambled please." Naruto nodded.

"Do you want me to talk to your parents so you don't get in trouble." Ino just shook her head vigorously.

"No! I can handle it, if daddy finds out I spent the night at a boys house he'll kill us both. I'll just tell him I spent the night at Sakura's." Naruto nodded again and then after the two ate they left, it was 8:30 by then. Naruto stopped just outside his apartment and turned to Ino.

"Thanks again Ino. I really needed to talk to someone last night." Ino just nodded before hugging Naruto who returned the hug.

"Don't mention it." The blonds separated from the hug as Ino had a stern face on. "Seriously though, don't say anything. If my dad finds out I'll be grounded until I'm thirty." Naruto nodded as the two split ways and Naruto made his way to training ground 7. The blond took his time to get to the training ground looking around seeing how the village was almost done with the outer repairs. The village walls that had been knocked down by Orochimaru's summons were already fixed with the bulk of the workforce fixing the housing situation. He arrived at the bridge near training ground 7 and saw a Sasuke and Sakura just staring off into space.

'Weird.' Thought Naruto before sitting some distance away from the two. While he and his team were waiting, Sakura, who had finally noticed the Naruto, sent a small wave to the blond and he responded with a polite nod. This caught the attention of Sasuke who scowled hard when he saw him. The two stared at each other before the avenger scoffed and turned to look away, a dark look crossing his face. It was ten minutes later that Naruto was pulled from his thoughts by his teammate who had walked to stand in front of the blond.

"Fight me." The blond looked at Sasuke and saw an intense look in his eye. It was the same look he had in the forest of death.

"No." His reply was cold and lacked any emotion. Sakura looked on with concern dancing in her eyes.

"Why not? You scared?" Sasuke taunted the blond.

"And why would I be scared of fighting you?" The blonds eye's had frozen over in anger and Sasuke activated his Sharingan.

"Why hello my cute little genins." Kakashi appeared in front of his team breaking the tension that had been building up. Sakura looked relieved and the male members of team 7 looked away with a huff.

"You're late Kakashi." Naruto said, his patience with his team suddenly gone thanks to the confrontation with his raven-haired teammate.

"On my way here a giant sea tortoise needed help finding the bathroom and I just had to help." Sakura sweatdropped at her sensei's excuse, Naruto rubbed the bridge of his nose, and Sasuke glared at their sensei.

"Enough, are we going to do any training today?" Sasuke looked expectantly at his sensei.

"No, all genin are to report to the mission office. You'll be assigned missions for the next week in the village while the higher ups deal with the fall out of the Sand-Sound invasion. I myself will be going on a mission later today and won't be back for at least three days." Naruto saw his raven-haired teammate's frown deepen. "Naruto, first congratulations on winning the tournament." The blond nodded. "You're required to be at the Hokage's office in 20 minutes. Anyway, we'll resume team practice and missions a week from now. Later." Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke as an awkward silence fell onto the trio. Sasuke tsk'd and shoved his hands in his pockets before he left. Sakura looked on as Sasuke walked away and Naruto took the chance to body flicker away himself. Naruto made it to the Hokage's tower where he was let into the office. He saw the Thirds old advisors Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado alongside Jiraya.

"Genin Uzumaki, welcome." Said Utatane. Naruto bowed to the elders internally grimacing at having to be formal but figured it was for the best, he knew the two were very old-fashioned.

"Hello, elder Utatane, elder Mitokado. You called for me." The two elders nodded back.

"Yes, we have tasked Jiraya with the mission to go find his old teammate Tsunade so she can become the Fifth Hokage. We were going to send a team of ANBU with him but he insisted you go with him instead." Naruto looked at the white-haired man surprised.

"That's right kiddo, but before that here this belongs to you." Jiraiya threw a scroll at Naruto who caught it and opened it. His eyes widened when the scroll exploded in smoke, and out of the smoke fell out a forest green flak jacket that the blond caught with both his hands.

"I got promoted." Was the shocked reply of the blond. Elder Mitokado cleared her throat to bring the blonds attention to her.

"That's right, we along with the ninja council decided to promote you for your performance in the chuunin exam and your services during the attack. We received various reports on your actions from many of our ninja that you saved." The blond swallowed thickly as he took off his burnt orange hoodie and put on his new flak jacket.

'I need to add some orange to my outfit.' Thought Naruto as he saw his reflection. Jiraiya took the opportunity to pat the blond on the back.

"Enjoy it, you deserved it. The old man would be proud." Naruto's eyes watered slightly as he blinked and nodded with determination. "We'll be leaving at noon so you have two hours to get your gear ready and meet me at the gate. Make sure to pack for about two weeks of travel, I don't expect to be gone that long but it never hurts to be prepared."

"Right. I'll see you there." Naruto saluted the elders as he went to his apartment to get his supplies ready. As Naruto was walking through the shopping district he saw a flash of orange in the corner of his eye. When he turned to look he saw an orange sash about three feet long in a discount bin. Naruto quickly picked it up and paid for it at the register when he was inside. Naruto looked at himself in the mirror. 'I look good.' Naruto thought as he saw the orange sash now tied around his waist. He was wearing his black pants and sandals. His newly acquired chuunin vest a lighter tone to his dark green shirt along with his long black headband that replaced his old one. Naruto made it too his house ate a quick lunch before he set off to the gate with his supplies sealed in a storage scroll he made as practice for learning the Kanji necessary for the five element seal. He was almost to the gate when he spotted team 8 doing work clearing some debris off a house that had been recently repaired. The whole in the house was fixed but the new wood had not been painted yet. As he got closer Kiba who had just dumped some trash in the nearby container looked at him, rubbed his eyes and looked at him again.

"Holy Shit! You got Promoted!" Kiba's yell had brought the attention of his sensei and his teammates.

"Kiba! Langue." Kiba apologized to his sensei as his teammate came closer to the blond who simply waved at all of them.

"Congratulations Naruto. You are worthy of your new position." Naruto nodded slightly at Shino.

'Geez, always so serious.' Thought Naruto. "Thanks, Shino, They just told me this morning."

"C-congratulations N-Naruto." Naruto turned to the shy Hyuga and gave her a small smile.

"Thanks, Hinata, I'm sorry I wasn't able to see you after everything got crazy but how are you feeling?"

"I-I'm fine. Most o-of my injuries ar-are healed." Naruto nodded at the slightly red-faced girl.

"I can't believe they promoted you before any of us. Man, the world is unfair." Naruto just ignored the Inuzuka as he wallowed in despair. Kurenai smacked her genin before turning to the newly promoted chuunin.

"Did they assign you a mission yet? I know that almost everyone has been asked to take more missions as a lot of the ANBU and jonin are being sent to the border for the next couple days to patrol the borders until the negotiations with the sand are done." Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, I'm leaving now I'm supposed to be at the main gate by noon." The raven-haired jonin nodded before team 8 said their goodbyes and Naruto made it to the gate minutes before noon.

"Good, I'm glad you didn't pick up Kakashi's bad habit of always being late." Jiraiya was leaning against the giant gate. "Let's go if we hurry we can make it to the next town by nightfall. Naruto nodded as he followed Jiraya as they jumped through the trees.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Deadly Confrontations**

Naruto and Jiraiya had been traveling for an hour, jumping from tree to tree when Jiraiya stopped and jumped down to the main road and signaled Naruto to join him. "Alright were about an hour's walking distance from Shukuba Town. I promised to help you train after the exams and I plan to start that when we get to town. First I'll need to speak to some contacts of mine to pick up on Tsunade's trail and then we can begin." Naruto nodded along before something popped into his head.

"So, do you have a picture of what she looks like?" Jiraiya grinned as he reached into his shirt and brought out a picture. Naruto took a look at the picture of a blonde woman wearing a gray shirt and green coat. "I meant a picture of her currently, not of her thirty years ago." Jiraiya just grinned harder."

"Kid, this picture is from six months ago." The blond's eyes widened as he looked at the picture then back to Jiraiya.

"How the hell does she look like that when you look like." Naruto paused and gestured to all of Jiraiya. "You." Jiraiya got a tick mark on his forehead.

"First of all, I'll have you know that the ladies think I'm roguishly handsome and as for your question Tsunade uses a very advanced genjutsu to make herself look younger."

"That's weird, well what are her most common hangouts then, where will we start searching."

"She will most likely be at the local bars or casinos." Naruto made a face at that but Jiraiya ignored him. "Either way there are a couple big gambling towns near Shukuba Town, once I talk to my contact well head off early tomorrow morning."

'Man, what a weird bunch, ones a snake freak with an obsession with Sasuke and the other is a gambling drunk.' Thought Naruto as he looked at Jiraiya. 'At least Jiraiya is somewhat normal.' The duo made it to the town were making their way to a hotel when a woman with a very revealing kimono came up to Jiraiya. Naruto noticed she had blond hair and a bountiful chest. 'Weird she kinda looks like Tsunade.' The blond chuunin watched as the women flirted with Jiraiya who was beginning to drool over the woman as he let out a perverted giggle when the woman pushed his arm between her breasts. 'Great, he's a pervert. First Kakashi and now him. At least Jiraiya goes for real women.' Thought Naruto with a sigh.

"Hey kid why don't you go find a hotel room for us I'll be back later." Jiraiya waved the blond away as he walked away deeper into the town, the blond woman basically hanging off the white-haired sannin. The chuunin just let out a sigh and quickly found a hotel and rented a room for the night.

'Might as well do something productive.' The blond thought as he sat in the bed and started meditating. It didn't take long for the blond to feel the familiar sensation of being pulled into the seal.

"**I see you finally got over your pathetic brooding.**" Naruto turned around to look at the giant fox, already used to his abrasive personality from coming to talk to him on an almost daily basis during the month of training.

"Yeah, I lost myself in pity there for a second but I'm back now." Naruto smiled at the fox who simply snorted.

"**You did adequately against the container of my brother, but don't get complacent! He was weak compared to the others. Shukaku drives all his hosts mad with insomnia but there are others who work alongside their hosts, like the eight-tails, if you encounter him at your current level you would perish. I remember that his host could use all his powers perfectly and even become the eight-tails itself.**" Naruto nodded taking the news as motivation to train harder than he had been.

"How did you meet the container for the eight-tails?" The great fox looked down at the blond as he studied him.

"**I met him when he fought my previous container.**" Naruto looked shocked at that.

"You had a previous container? Who was it? How did you get out?" The nine-tails looked angry, his chakra becoming oppressive as the blond began to have difficulties breathing.

"**I was released by a one of those accursed Uchiha! He used that twisted eye of his to take control of me, ME! **"The giant fox stood up during his rant before laying back down his head resting on his left hand."** He is the reason I was rampaging in the first place. As for your other question ask the white-haired one you're traveling with, he will answer your questions.**" Naruto nodded, breathing easier as the chakra receded.

"I'm sorry they did that. It must be horrible to go from one prison to another because someone took control of you." There was a long silence as the fox studied the blond, the fox suddenly looked up as a growl escaped his throat.

"**I feel two strong chakra signatures with vile intentions coming to your room.**" Naruto looked alarmed before his eyes hardened.

"Thanks for the heads up." The fox didn't say anything before started channeling chakra.

"**You can't win against them, I'll grant you some of my chakra so you don't die and drag me with you. You need to leave and find the pervert.**"

"Thank you. You'll tell me your name someday I can't just keep calling you nine-tails." Naruto smiled at the fox as he awoke from his meditation. His attention was brought to the door as he heard a quiet knock. Naruto quickly went to the window and jumped away going for the edge of town as he summoned 30 clones to spread out to look for Jiraiya. Naruto made it to a clearing at the edge of town when his eyes widened and ducked. Naruto felt the wind howl above him as it was displaced by a giant bandage covered sword, it was thanks only to listening to his instincts that the blond had managed to dodge what would have most likely been a debilitating blow. Naruto jumped forward and as he turned around he saw two people standing behind him. The taller of the two was the one with the sword that had almost taken him out. He had grayish-blue skin and dark blue hair. He had what appeared to be gills on his neck. The shorter of the two had long black hair with some very distinctive red eyes with three comas spinning around his pupil. 'Shit, Itachi Uchiha!' Naruto cursed as he saw the kin slayer. The two were wearing identical black cloaks with red clouds on them.

"Hello, Naruto. I'm going to need you to come with us." His voice was smooth and lacked any and all emotion. Naruto started sweating trying to think of strategies to escape this dire situation.

"Hey Itachi, look at that. The brats a chuunin, I guess out information was wrong. Wasn't he supposed to be the loud-mouthed dead last with an orange obsession?" Naruto saw the man's teeth were sharp like Zabuza's had been when he grinned at the blond.

"It doesn't matter if he were a jonin Kisame, it doesn't change our mission." Itachi replied.

"Heh, I guess you're right. Maybe I should cut his legs off so he doesn't run anymore." Naruto jumped back as he summoned ten clones. Five rushed the duo as three popped immediately covering Naruto as he and his remaining clones from the Uchiha's eyes, he and his clones quickly went through hand seals.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" Naruto shouted as his clones performed a wind jutsu to enhance the blonds fireball.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" The jutsus mixed creating a blazing inferno that raced at the two rogues. Kisame smirked as he ran through his own hand seals and the fire was met with a massive wall of water, the entire area was filled with steam as a result of the two elements clashing. Naruto bit his thumb and went through the required seals for his summon. "Summoning Jutsu!" A human-sized toad appeared with a green vest and two swords strapped to its back. "Gamashiro I need you to help me deal with an enemy swordsmen." The Green toad nodded at his summoner.

"Of course Naruto, I shall help with the best of my abilities." Naruto and Gamashiro jumped back as the giant club sword came down between them.

" Hiding in the mist? A rather poor choice brat, I was never as good as Zabuza with silent killing but every single one of the 7 swordsmen learned to use it!" Naruto cursed as he created a clone to blow away the mist as he gathered earth chakra into his right arm tuning it black. The clone used breakthrough and Kisame covered his face from the wind Naruto punched with all his might only to be blocked as Kisame brought up his sword. Naruto stood still seeing his attack didn't do anything and then he sensed that the sword was eating his chakra, his hand returning to its normal coloring. The blond recoiled as he felt a sharp sensation on his fist, he looked down and saw it was bleeding. Gamashiro took the opportunity to try and slash Kisame only have to jump back from a fireball from Itachi. "Looks like samehada doesn't like your chakra all too much. Seems he finds it a bit heavy." There was an angry yell and everyone's attention was brought to the edge of the clearing as Sasuke ran in.

"Itachi. Finally, I've trained for years and spent countless hours imagining this day. I have embraced my hatred for you and now finally I'll avenge our family!" The younger Uchiha glared with his Sharingan active as he charged his Chidori. "DIE!" Sasuke screamed as he ran at Itachi at full speed, his Chidori leaving a trail of destruction in the ground.

'That IDIOT!' Naruto yelled internally as he tried to intercept the two only to be met with a grinning Kisame who dashed in front of him as the blue-skinned man swung his sword.

"Not so fast brat, that ain't our fight!" Naruto crossed his arms as he channeled all the earth chakra possible into his arms as well as unleashing the chakra the nine-tails had given him. A shroud of bubbling red chakra formed around him as a single tail appeared behind him. He was hit by the blade and he could feel the sharp spikes dig into his arm as he was sent flying back, his chakra shroud completely gone along with the earth chakra he had used to coat his arms. Naruto skidded to a stop as he watched Itachi grab Sasuke's wrist as he held the Chidori away from himself.

"Foolish little brother, you lack the proper hatred to match me. Only when you acquire the same eyes as I have, will you be able to properly challenge me." Itachi slammed a fist into Sasuke's gut causing the younger Uchiha to double over as his Chidori dissipated. Itachi grabbed his brother by the collar as he lifted him up to eye level and whispered. "Tsukuyomi." Three seconds later Itachi dropped the now unconscious Sasuke to the ground. Naruto cursed his teammate in his head. "Now I think it's time we left. Don't make this harder than it has to be Naruto." Naruto saw that Itachi was now standing next to Kisame and that he had a clear path to reach Sasuke.

'Damn it, where the hell is Jiraiya!' Thought Naruto as he began to channel as much chakra as possible as he creates 100 clones who each start going through different hand seals. Naruto body flickered to Sasuke as some clones had charged the dangerous duo to distract them. Naruto saw that multiple walls of earth sprang up on three directions trapping the duo in a funnel as the rest of his clones start unleashing everything they have.

"Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder!"

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough! "

"Water Style: Raging Waves!"

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

"Ninja Arts: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Naruto used up most of his remaining chakra as he body flickered away with Sasuke as a giant explosion overtook the clearing. He looked back to see the once green clearing was now a crater as smoke slowly dissipated. Naruto grit his teeth as he heard a whistle from directly in the middle of the smoke. "Damn Itachi, the kid can pack a hell of a punch." Naruto saw that the two looked unharmed except for that they were now wet. "I gotta admit kid, had you done that against anyone else that might have worked." Naruto let out a curse as he was now out of chakra and had to drag his teammate along too.

"That's far enough Akatsuki. You won't be getting Naruto." Naruto sighed in relief as Jiraiya jumped down between the two pairs.

"So it was you who told Kakashi the name of our organization." Itachi said as he gazed at the old sannin. Naruto saw a green blur as Kisame raised samehada to block a kick. Guy backflipped as he disengaged from Kisame and stood in his strong fist stance.

"Hello Lord Jiraiya, I have come to help you deal with these two most un-youthful fellows." Jiraiya simply nodded as he watched the Akatsuki duo, unwilling to look away from them even for a second.

"Kisame let's go, it has become too difficult to capture the nine-tails with both Jiraiya of the sannin and Might Guy here." Itachi said as he looked at the two leaf jonin.

"And it was just about to get fun too. Alright, we'll see you around brat." Naruto watched as the two missing ninjas left, he let out a sigh as he laid down, exhausted from the whole ordeal. Guy went over to Sasuke to pick him up.

"I will take him back with me to the Leaf, he managed to find out Itachi confronted Kakashi along with Kurenai and Asuma. Someone let it slip they were looking for young Naruto here." Said blond just looked on as Jiraiya made a grim face.

"It can't be helped, just get him back and make sure he doesn't run off on a suicide quest again." Guy nodded as he left with Sasuke on his back. Naruto and Jiraiya walked back to the inn slowly.

"Tomorrow I'll have you start working on a new jutsu. For tonight why don't you just rest up we'll leave early tomorrow morning after I give you the basics to the jutsu." Naruto didn't say anything until they were both back in the hotel room. Jiraiya saw that the blond was unusually quiet and was honestly shocked by the question that came out of his mouth.

"Who was the container of the nine-tails before me?" Jiraiya looked at the blond as a deadly serious frown marred his face.

"Where did you learn about the other containers." Naruto put a hand over his stomach.

"The Nine-tails. We were discussing how he ended up sealed in me and he mentioned someone breaking him out of his old host. He told me to ask you about the identity of the person." Jiraiya looked surprised at the mention of communicating with the giant fox and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I'll tell you when we get back to the village, along with some other information. I would have told you before you left but the need to find Tsunade as soon as possible overshadowed that possibility." Naruto frowned but nodded in understanding he was assuming that the news must very sensitive and not be shared in some random hotel room in some town.

"Alright, but I want to know about them." Naruto had caught that Jiraiya had said containers and not a container.

"I will kid, I promise. Why don't we turn in for the night? It's been an eventful day." The blond nodded and soon the two were out for the night.

The two toad summoners left just as the sun rose, Jiraiya had brought out a water balloon and held it in front of the blonds face. "The first step to learning the jutsu is to pop this water balloon with only your chakra." Jiraiya demonstrated as the blond watched as the balloon started to bubble before popping. "You need to do this by spinning the water inside the balloon at an immense speed." Naruto nodded as Jiraiya threw him a balloon.

"So what IS the jutsu your teaching me?" The toad sage grinned as walked closer to a tree.

"Watch closely, I'm about to show you a technique invented by the Forth himself." Naruto saw that the older man held his hand out as chakra gathered and spun in countless directions as it formed a sphere. "Rasengan!" Naruto saw the Rasengan tear through the tree like paper as the tree fell, it was essentially ripped in half at the base.

'That's one nasty jutsu.' Thought Naruto as he imagined it being performed on a person

"That is what you are learning. There are three steps to learning the Rasengan and the water balloon is the first step. You can work on that while we walk to the next town, my contacts in Shukuba Town said that they spotted Tsunade heading there just two days ago so we're in luck. She usually stays in a town for at least two weeks and were 3 day's walk from there. The place is called Tanzaku Town, it's well known for its casinos." Naruto nodded and the two began their journey. Naruto would pin the chakra and saw how it would become an oval shape and he stopped spinning it.

'It doesn't look at all how Jiraiya did it.' Naruto thought as he remembered when he saw him form the Rasengan that it was spinning in many ways. 'That's right! It didn't just spin one way it was spinning in a bunch of directions.' With the new revelation, Naruto tried and noticed it became significantly harder to spin the water with it trying to move in many different ways and it would barely bubble. Naruto managed to pop the balloon by nightfall of the second day of traveling, he had spent every waking moment trying to perfect the speed of the spinning water.

"Good job. You managed to do that remarkably fast." Jiraiya praised the blond when he noticed he had completed the first step.

"Thanks, I had trouble spinning the water in multiple directions at first." Jiraiya nodded as he brought out a rubber ball.

"The next step is to pop the rubber ball using the same technique you learned popping the water balloon. This step is all about power where the last one was all about speed. Here you go." Naruto caught the ball Jiraiya tossed and he looked at it.

'Power huh, alright.' Naruto thought as he began to add more and more chakra as he began spinning it inside the balloon and after 10 seconds it exploded sending both Jiraiya and Naruto to their backs as they had been sitting on some log making camp. Jiraiya stood up with a look of shock as he pointed at the blond.

"How!? What!?" Naruto raised an eyebrow at the white-haired man.

"This step was all about power, power means chakra, and I have that in spades." After a minute of pointing Naruto began to develop a tick mark. "If you're done gawking what's the final step of the jutsu."

Jiraiya calmed down as he brought out a balloon. "You're lucky I came so prepared, though now I have about ten rubber balls I don't need." Jiraiya lamented as he blew air into the balloon. "This is the final step." Said the sage as he held the balloon out. Naruto didn't see anything wrong with the balloon until he remembered that the Rasengan fit the palm of Jiraiya's hand when he used it.

"I have to control the chakra into a sphere so it doesn't break the balloon." Jiraiya nodded with a smile.

"That's right, the final step is all about control. You combine the first two steps but instead of letting it run wild you contain it in a compact form. This is what makes the jutsu so deadly." Naruto saw Jiraiya form a second Rasengan in his other hand to show that the Rasengan had to reside in the balloon without damaging it. "This is going to be the toughest part of learning the jutsu. So here, get started." Naruto was handed a packet of 50 blow up balloons and he considered using shadow clones to speed up progress.

'No, once I run out of balloons I can't train until we reach town again.' So with that Naruto began the final step of learning the Rasengan. After an hour of trying he was told by Jiraiya to sleep as they would be heading out early tomorrow.

The two had reached Tanzaku Town by noon the next day and Naruto left the remaining balloons he had with him with clones in a clearing near the town as he and Jiraiya started their search for Tsunade. Naruto sent out ten clones to search the casinos and bars and after an hour of fruitless effort, they stopped at a random restaurant.

'Oh, you've got to be kidding me.' Thought an annoyed Naruto as he spotted Tsunade along with a dark-haired woman with a pig eating at one of the stalls. 'Out of all the places I checked she ends up being in not some bar or casino but a family restaurant.'

"Hey there princess, long time no see, and it's good to see you too Shizune." Jiraiya's remark brought the attention of the two ladies as Tsunade let out a small groan.

"Seems like today is full of nostalgia. First Orochimaru and now you." The two males frowned at the mention of the snake sannin. "What do you want Jiraiya you didn't track me down for old times' sake." Jiraiya sat in the booth directly in front of Tsunade as Naruto himself sat in front of the now identified Shizune.

"I'll cut to the chase then, the elders and the council want you to become the next Hokage." Naruto watched as the older blond took a sip of her drink.

"So then sensei really is dead." Naruto felt a pang of sadness at the mention of the Third.

"Yes, he is."

"Well, I refuse. That hat is a death trap." Naruto glared at the women as Jiraiya continued to talk.

"Tsunade we could really use you. Not only as a Hokage but as a medic, we have a lot of injuries that only you can heal." Jiraiya tried to plead to his old teammate.

"No, I swore I would never return to the village. So go back to the elders and tell them they can forget about me becoming Hokage. It's a fool's job anyway. Anyone who wears that hat will just throw their life away needlessly." Naruto started to leak some killing intent unknowingly as his anger started to rise. Tsunade noticed and raised a brow at the blond.

"What? Got something to say pipsqueak." Naruto took a deep breath to calm himself down.

"The Third risked his life so that others could continue living their lives in peace, just like all the other Hokages have done. They didn't throw their lives away for nothing they sacrificed them so others could have better futures. I don't know who the hell you think you are to belittle what they died for but you clearly have no idea why they fought." Tsunade looked pissed.

"I am the granddaughter of the First Hokage and the grandniece of the Second. I lost all my loved ones to that damn hat so don't go around thinking you know what I went through." Naruto's eyes darkened as he stared at the female sannin.

"You think you're the only person that lost loved ones? I would think you if all people would understand why they did what they did. Your just an old pathetic drunk who can't get over herself." Jiraiya put a hand on the chuunins shoulder to sit him back down as he had stood up in his rant.

"Watch your mouth brat or I'll put you in the hospital." Tsunade glared and Naruto returned the glare with equal vigor. That surprised both Jiraiya and Shizune.

"Make me." Tsunade stood up and pointed to the door.

"Alright, tough guy let's handle this outside." Naruto followed the woman outside as Jiraiya and Shizune got up to try and talk them out of it.

"Kid, are you sure about this she's no pushover. She may be rusty but she can still wipe the floor with you." Naruto kept walking as he didn't pay attention to his white-haired sensei.

"I'll be merciful. I'll only use one finger to beat you." Naruto said nothing as he nodded. "Fine, I'll start then." Tsunade slammed her finger into the ground and caused a big crack to run along the road that made the earth shake. The whiskered blond regained his balance and he rushed the older blond while channeling earth chakra into his fist, it turned black as the earth chakra concentrated in his arm and he swung. Tsunade raised a finger to block but let out a surprised yelp as she was sent skidding back. Naruto used the opening to summon three clones, one clone jumped up and brought an axe kick down on the blond sannin who flicked the clone away. The other two rushed her as the original Naruto jumped back as he took out some shuriken and threw them. The two clones popped and covered Tsunade's line of sight as she heard the younger blond shout.

"Ninja Arts: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!" The Sannin quickly slammed her fist into the ground as a slab of earth rose up to block the dozens of shuriken that came at her. "So much for using a single finger huh." Tsunade turned her head as she heard the chuunin mock her as he stood off to the side.

"Tsk, you got lucky."

"No, You just suck." The whiskered blond responded as the blond sannin growled.

"Why do you even care so much." Tsunade said as she dashed at the blond.

"Because I'm going to be Hokage and protect the people of the Leaf." The blond exploded in a cloud of smoke showing he was a shadow clone. Tsunade saw a shadow above her and looked up ready to flick Naruto away only to freeze for second before she jumped back avoiding his attack. "Rasengan!" The Rasengan he used destabilized and caused a spiral to appear on the street. Tsunade seeing the jutsu turned to Jiraiya.

"I can't believe you taught that jutsu to this brat. You even taught him sensei's shuriken jutsu." Jiraiya simply shook his head.

"No, I didn't teach him sensei's jutsu to him. He did it himself before he died." Tsunade looked shocked. "And as for teaching him the Rasengan. I did it because I believe in his dream." Both Naruto and Tsunade were stunned for different reasons. Naruto felt touched that Jiraiya believed in him and Tsunade was reminded of the passion her loved ones had for being Hokage. But she was also reminded of the fire both her sensei and grandfather had when battling for the village.

"Fine, how about a bet then." Naruto looked back at the blond woman.

"What bet?"

"If you master the Rasengan by the end of the week I'll come back with you and at least hear out the council and deal with the injured. If you can't you can forget about me coming back." Jiraiya was about to speak but Naruto beat him to it.

"Deal." The blond sannin nodded before grabbing her green crystal necklace.

"To make things more interesting I'll throw in my grandfathers necklace and you'll throw in your wallet." Naruto just nodded again before Jiraiya stepped up.

"Alright, I think that's enough for one day. Go find a hotel for us Naruto, I'll find you later." Naruto nodded reluctantly remembering how things went last time he left with a busty blond.

"Shizune you go back too. Show the brat where the hotel is I need to catch up with Jiraiya." Shizune nodded.

"Of course lady Tsunade." The pairs split off as Shizune went to show Naruto where the hotel was. Naruto felt the last of his clones memories who had been working on perfecting the Rasengan come to him and he smirked as he followed the raven-haired woman to their destination.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: A battle of Giants**

Naruto and Shizune walked at a steady pace as they made their way to the hotel in the center of town. "You shouldn't judge her too hard. Lady Tsunade has had a hard life. I'm surprised she even put that necklace on the line for your bet." Shizune had spoken in defense of her master.

"What's so special about the necklace aside from the sentimental value?" Asked the curious blond.

The raven-haired women took a moment to respond as the pair made their way through the crowds of people. "That necklace is cursed." The blond raised an eyebrow at the older woman a silent prompt for her to explain. "She received that necklace when her grandfather, Lord Hashirama, died during the first war. She passed down the necklace to her younger brother Nawaki when he told her his dream was to become Hokage like their grandfather." The blonds eyebrow stayed raised. "It was a way to show him that he believed in his dream. This was right at the beginning of the second war. Tsunade's brother Nawaki died the very next day." Naruto stayed silent as he listened to the story, occasionally nodding to show that he was paying attention. "This caused her to advocate for at least one medical ninja to be on a squad to prevent more battlefield deaths. She campaigned for her cause for months but the council said it would be too difficult to train new medics properly especially during a war. She was in a horrible depression for months until she met my uncle Dan. The two shared the same goal of having a medical ninja on every squad. My mother had died on a mission and Uncle Dan always blamed himself for not being there to heal her when she got hurt. He agreed with lady Tsunade that if every squad had a healer many lives could be saved. They dated for a year before becoming engaged." Shizune took another breath before continuing her tale. "Eventually Uncle Dan told lady Tsunade about his dream of being Hokage." Naruto was starting to see a pattern. "She gave him her necklace one final time to show her support of his dream." Shizune had a sad smile on her face. "He died in her arms a week later. His team had managed to drag him back to the Leaf village gates where lady Tsunade began to heal him after his squad was attacked. She managed to stop his bleeding but it was too late. He had lost too much blood. Lady Tsunade developed hemophobia after that moment, a fear of blood." Naruto frowned when he heard that. "So now Lady Tsunade thinks anyone who isn't her that wears the necklace will die."

"Smart, either she wins takes my money and never sees me or she gives me a necklace that will kill me." Shizune started waving her arms around in a panic.

"No! No! It's just that you remind her of them. Your dream of being Hokage must have made her nostalgic, she wouldn't try to curse you." Naruto waved her off.

"I was kidding, I don't believe in something like a curse. It doesn't change anything though. At the end of the day, she gave up instead of continuing to fight for her dream and mocked all her loved ones when she spits on the title of Hokage." The two were quiet as they made it to the hotel. There were people of various ages scurrying along as Naruto rented a room for the next couple of days. "If it makes you feel better, I'll prove the curse wrong when I win the bet." Shizune, who had been in a somber mood, smiled as she made her way to her room as her pig following behind her.

Naruto went to a nearby store once he had seen his room. He bought four packs of 100 balloons and went to a clearing close to town. Naruto created 50 clones and handed them a bag of balloons. Naruto himself started working on his physical training to work on his speed as he thought of all his recent encounters. 'First Orochimaru, then Itachi and Kisame. I can't keep up with them. If they hadn't been playing around with me I'd be dead.' The whiskered blond spent the remaining daylight out in the clearing training. At sundown, the blond dispelled all his clones and tested a Rasengan to see how far he had gotten. Naruto saw he could form the Rasengan in about 5 seconds could hold it together for another 15 before it destabilized.

"Good job kid! It took me 6 months to learn that jutsu and the forth 3 years to make." Jiraiya was on top of a boulder with his notebook out as he wrote. "Looks like you won the bet on the first day." Naruto shook his head at Jiraiya's statement.

"No, I need to perfect this jutsu. I need to be able to form it in a second and have it stabilized indefinitely." Jiraiya let out a whistle at the blonds remark.

"That's a lofty goal. Under normal circumstances, it would take months to do that and you only have till the end of the week, which I remind you is three days from now." Naruto didn't say anything as he formed 10 clones and dispelled them as he raised his eyebrow at Jiraiya who had a sweat drop forming on his head. "Right, your shadow clone training. We'll let's go to the hotel for the night and rest up."

"Right, let's go." Naruto returned to the clearing for the next 2 days as he continued to train physically while his clones worked on forming the Rasengan. With the abuse of the shadow clone, Naruto had managed to form the Rasengan in 1 and 1/2 seconds and could hold it for 10 minutes straight. The training was pure chakra manipulation and was doing wonders for his control. Naruto meditated every night before bed and would try to coax his tenant into conversations (they were very one-sided as the fox rarely spoke). Naruto was in his room meditating when he was awakened from his meditation when his sensei entered the room.

"I'll be back later kid, I'm going to go eat out with Tsunade tonight." Naruto barely acknowledged the old toad sage as he left and soon after the blond fell asleep.

Naruto woke up when he sensed someone enters his hotel room. 'Not happening again.' Thought the blond as he moved swiftly and grabbed the kunai he had stashed under his pillow. He jumped out of his bed and pushed the intruder into the wall with the kunai descending to the intruder's neck. The kunai stopped a millimeter from their jugular as Naruto saw who the intruder was. "Shizune? What are you doing here? You're not trying to kill me are you?" The raven-haired woman was wide-eyed as she stared at the blond in \shock.

"Lady Tsunade is on her way to meet Orochimaru. I was trying to find lord Jiraiya but I couldn't find him anywhere." Naruto grit his teeth in anger at the mention of the snake sannin. "We need to go after her, Orochimaru is hurt from his fight with lord third and sought her out to heal him." Naruto quickly changed from his sleepwear into his regular clothes, The two found Jiraiya slumped in the hallway. "Lord Jiraiya! Are you ok!?" Shizune rushed over to the white-haired sannin.

"I'm fine, Tsunade slipped a drug into my drink last night it's thrown my chakra control out of whack." Shizune placed her glowing green hands on his chest.

"I've accelerated the healing of the poison but it's all I can do for now." Jiraiya nodded at the dark-haired medic as he got up slowly.

"Right, let's go we don't have time to waste here, we need to find Tsunade." The trio quickly went out and followed Shizune to where Orochimaru told her and Tsunade he would be at to hear the female sannin's answer. Naruto noticed it was a barren field with splotches of green here and there, there was the occasional boulder laying about as well with a single tree's sprinkled around. Off in the distance, the trio noticed Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Kabuto. The blond saw Orochimaru was standing away from Tsunade and Kabuto, his hands were wrapped in bloody bandages, his arms hanging uselessly at his sides. Naruto could see the tips of his fingers sticking out of the bandages, they were a sickly deep dark purple in color.

'That's unnatural.' Thought Naruto as he noticed Kabuto had stabbed himself in the hand and splashed blood all over Tsunade who froze. 'Damn it! What kinda medic is scared of blood.' Naruto quickly body flickered in front of Tsunade as Kabuto came closer to finish her with his kunai. Naruto brought out his own kunai as he deflected the strike and tried to roundhouse Kabuto who jumped back to stand next to Orochimaru. Shizune and Jiraiya landed beside the blond as both sides stared each other down. Naruto saw the snake start to smile and he felt his blood boil as he started to sub-consciously release killing intent. The snake sannin's yellow eyes glowed with malice when they landed on Naruto.

"My my my, I didn't expect to see you here Naruto. I got to say you surprised me at the chuunin exams. All the information I had on you said you were the dead last. I was honestly impressed when you survived a strike from my Kusanagi." Orochimaru chuckled as Naruto grabbed his chest where his scar was. Naruto took his eyes off the traitor sannin and glared at Kabuto.

"So you were working for the snake all along huh, Kabuto." The youngest of the medics let out a smile as he lifted his glasses with his fingers, the sunlight reflecting off them obscuring his eyes.

"Indeed, I have been loyal to Lord Orochimaru since I was a small child. I must say you surprised me too, out of you and Sasuke one would assume the rookie of the year would be the first to be promoted instead of the orphaned loser." The blond narrowed his eyes.

"Sasuke is an unstable child."

"Oh? And you're not? Lord Orochimaru told me what happened in the forest of death, how you were abandoned by your teammates even when you heroically came back to help them." Jiraiya had a concerned look in his eye as he glanced at his student. "But, to be fair to your teammates, you were the most expendable one and when compared to the treasure that is Sasuke well." Kabuto shrugged as before continuing. "There's a reason he's called a genius." The blond's eyes shifted from his normal blue to purple as specks of red started to bleed through. His pupils becoming slits as his anger started to rise.

"**Calm Down.**" Naruto was snapped out of his anger by the voice of the Nine-tails. He took a deep breath as his eyes returned to their normal blue but remained as slits. Naruto dashed at the young medic and tried to take advantage of him still having his left hand damaged. He reached Kabuto who attempted to kick him but Naruto grabbed his leg and threw him away from Orochimaru. Naruto turned around just in time to cross his arms as he was sent flying by a kick from the snake sannin. Naruto landed on his feet as he watched the two male sannins engage in a taijutsu match.

"you keep impressing me Naruto." The blond turned from the two S-class ninjas fighting back to the young medic, Naruto let out a small tsk when he saw his arm was completely healed.

'Damn.' Thought Naruto.

"You've grown an incredible amount in such a short time. I can't allow you to get any stronger than you already have, you could be a real hindrance. You already messed with my master's plan during the chuunin exams." Kabuto blurred forward as he brought his glowing hand down to hit Naruto. The blond was barely able to react in time as he jumped up. He coated his foot in earth chakra and axe kicked the medic. Kabuto grabbed him by the ankle and threw him at Shizune and Tsunade. Naruto tried to land on his feet only to notice he couldn't move his foot as pain shot through his leg. He rolled on the ground and quickly stood up as he created 10 clones. Kabuto saw he was favoring his left leg. "I see you noticed. My chakra scalpel allows me to injure my foes from the inside. When I grabbed your ankle I severed your Achilles tendon." Naruto felt the nine-tails chakra move to his heel and felt the pain subside. "Face it Naruto, you'll never be Hokage." Shizune stood in front of the two blonds as she brought out her senbon.

"Stay back, I'll handle this, protect Lady Tsunade." Naruto saw Shizune dash and soon the two entered a deadly dance as the two medics avoided the others chakra scalpels. Naruto grit his teeth at being unable to keep with the older ninjas speed.

'First Orochimaru then Itachi and Kisame. Now Kabuto too. I need to get faster.' The blond saw the that Jiraiya had made a giant mud-pit and as he avoided a super elongated sword from Orochimaru. Naruto looked back at the two medics and saw Kabuto had managed to catch Shizune on the shoulder as her arm fell to her side useless. Naruto threw a Kunai at Kabuto who caught it mid-air and threw it back. Naruto avoided it and Kabuto ran at the immobile Tsunade. Naruto body flicked in front of Kabuto who was caught off guard that the blond could move and received a right hook to the face because of it. The clones of the blond took advantage and held Kabuto immobile.  
"Hey, Tsunade. I won our bet." The blond sannin looked up for the first time as she saw the blond holding out a perfect Rasengan. Naruto saw the Kabuto's eyes widen as Naruto Slammed his Rasengan into his chest. The Rasengan tore through his shirt and ground away into his chest before he was blasted back into a boulder where he slumped down blood dripping from his mouth.

"You know. You remind me a lot of sensei and my uncle. They were always so serious and determined to never have anything stand in the way of their goals." Tsunade reaches into her shirt as she pulls out her necklace and puts it on him. "You won the bet brat." Tsunade reaches down and kisses his forehead. Naruto blushed for a second before his eyes widened, he pushes Tsunade away just as Orochimaru body flickered next to the two blonds as he tried to impale them, the sword slashes the whiskered blond's chest as he was thrown back several feet. Jiraiya appears beside the snake sannin and kicks Orochimaru away. Tsunade seeing the blond bleeding freezes for a split second before she rushes in to heal him. Naruto laid on the ground as the blond sannin closed his wound the poison on Kusanagi making it impossible to fully heal.

"That bastard has now ruined two of my favorite jackets." Naruto said as his bleeding stopped and was hugged by a shaking Tsunade.

"Why did you do that. I thought I had killed you by giving you the necklace."

"No, If anything it saved my life." Naruto reached up with his right hand to hold the necklace. "It deflected the initial stab and caused it to be a slash. Besides, you may not be living in the village anymore but you're still a comrade and a member of the leaf. I want to follow the steps of the third and he taught me every member of the village is part of the Hokage's family. I would give up my life protecting them just like he did." Tsunade saw the pure fire of determination in his eyes as she nodded.

"Sarutobi-sensei died for nothing." Both blonds looked at the Snake sannin who was next to a shaky Kabuto who was clutching his chest as he healed himself slowly.

"Explaining why sensei died to you would be pointless." Jiraiya said as he landed between the blonds and his traitor teammate.

"you're right I wouldn't understand why he would waste his life protecting that pathetic village." Naruto glared at the sannin and watched as Tsunade blurred forward and delivered a devastating axe kick. The attack caused a massive crater on impact and it felt as though she caused an earthquake. The whiskered blonde's eyes widen at the size of the crater.

'I knew she had super strength but this is ridicules!'

"Enough talk Orochimaru. It's time to end this." Jiraiya stepped up next to Tsunade as Shizue rejoined Naruto behind their senseis.

"That's right. You'll pay for what you did to sensei and the leaf." Tsunade glared at the two traitors as she released copious amounts of killing intent. Orochimaru simply looked at Kabuto who nodded and bit his thumb. He pulled up Orochimaru's bandage in his right arm revealing a snake Tattoo and smeared the blood over it. The two loyal sannin knew what was about to happen and also bit their thumbs as they went through hand seals rapidly. There were three simultaneous shouts.

"Summoning Jutsu!" Tsunade and Orochimaru summoned two giant animals. Orochimaru and Kabuto stood atop a purple snake, Tsunade stood atop of a massive white slug with blue markings running along its side. And Jiraiya.

"Yo!" The small rust red toad waved at Naruto from his spot next to Jiraiya.

Naruto couldn't believe his eyes. His sensei had summoned Gamakichi. "You've got to be kidding me!" Jiraiya screamed.

"**Hello lady Tsunade it's good to see you**. " The slug said to her summoner.

"It's good to see you too Katsuyu."

"**Orochimaru! I want at least 100 sacrifices for summing me!**" Naruto saw the giant snake yell at his summoner in anger.

"I can't believe I summoned you Kichi." Jiraiya groaned as Naruto walked up to Jiraiya as he bit his own thumb.

"I knew you were old sensei but having performance problems already?" Shizune blushed at the blonds words as Jiraiya just gaped at him. Meanwhile, Gamakichi was laughing his head off. Naruto gathered chakra before slamming his hands on the ground. "Summoning Jutsu!" There was a giant plum smoke which quickly dissipated to show Gamabunta.

"Pops!" Gamakichi waved hello at his father from his nose.

"**Kichi? What are you doing here? Manda****?! Katsuyu? JIRAIYA!**" Naruto jumped down onto Bunta's nose and picked Gamakichi up.

"Chief, I summoned you, Jiraiya had his chakra control messed up and was only able to summon Gamakichi here so I brought you out so you could support him against Orochimaru and his summon." The chief toad looked at the blond who had placed his son on his head.

"Very well, since it's you and you summoned me for something important I'll help. Looks like the missus is getting a new snakeskin wallet today!" Naruto jumped down to stand next to Shizune as the old teammates stared each other down.

"It's been almost 15 years since we've all been together like this." Orochimaru spoke.

"And this will be the last time too. You're not leaving here alive." Jiraiya threatened.

"Come now, Jiraiya we've had this song and dance before, besides. If sensei couldn't beat me what makes you think you can?" Manda who was watching the exchange had to slither away to dodge a giant blob of acid from Katsuyu. "All ways the impatient one Tsunade." Orochimaru taunted.

"Stop wasting time, Jiraiya let's go!"

"Right." Katsuyu spat more acid as Manda weaved around them going for the perpetrator only to stop short when Gamabunta tried to jump down on him, blade drawn. The exchange continued for a while. Gamabunta using his jumping ability to avoid strikes from Manda and at the same time using his mobility to cover Katsuyu when Manda got too close to her. Katsuyu herself was acting as long-range support for Gamabunta and Manda used his superior speed to dodge all attacks. Eventually, Manda was able to use his superior speed to wrap around Katsuyu who split apart into countless smaller versions of herself. Tsunade took the opportunity to punch Manda away.

"Bunta! Oil!" Gamabunta nodded at his summoner seeing an opening to end this fight and put his blade down to go through hand seals.

"Fire Style: Fire Bullet!"

"**Ninja Arts: Toad Oil Bullet****!**" The two techniques combined with a towering inferno and the body of Manda could be seen in the flame withering in pain. Naruto watched on as he and Shizune had been forced to jump away to a safer distance because of the scale of the attacks. Gamabunta and Jiraiya got closer to the burned body of Manda once the flames ceased. Naruto saw that parts of the skin were collapsing in on themselves as his eyes widened in realization but before he could worn his sensei and Gamabunta Manda blasted out of the ground fangs poised to strike at Gamabunta.

"Not so fast!" Tsunade shouted as she grabbed Bunta's blade that he had set down to do his jutsu and used it to skewer it through Manda's mouth immobilizing him. Orochimaru yelled in rage as he wrapped his tongue around the medics throat and swung her around before slamming her into the ground. He tried to reel his tongue back but couldn't. Tsunade had a vice grip on his tongue as she gave a mighty pull. "Get over here!" Orochimaru flew to Tsunade who unleashed a crippling blow to the snake sannin's face. Naruto heard his skull crack as he was launched away and rolled lifelessly on the ground. Kabuto who was still on Manda quickly made his way to his master's side.

"**Damn you Orochimaru, If you ever summon me again I'll kill YOU!**" Manda roared as he left, leaving behind Gamabunta's sword. Naruto watched the corpse of the sannin closely his instincts telling him he wasn't dead yet.

"It's over." Shizune whispered to herself as she made her way to her master.

"**You owe me some sake Jiraiya!**" Gamabunta yelled at toad sage.

"WHAT! But I didn't even summon you!"

"**You're right, you summoned my SON TO THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE! YOU OWE ME FIVE BARRELS OF SAKE YOU IDIOT!**" After informing his summoner what he owed him Gamabunta puffed away shortly followed by Gamakichi. Katsuyu seeing all other summons leave, bid a short goodbye to Tsunade and left as well. Everyone was on alert as Orochimaru's body moved. His jaw dislocated and opened to an inhuman degree as a perfectly unharmed sannin slithered out.

"Brutal as always Tsunade, you haven't changed at all have you?" Naruto rushed forward to take out Orochimaru as he was still getting out of his old body but was stopped by Jiraiya.

"Don't go crazy. He'd wipe the floor with you." Naruto nodded grudgingly as Kabuto came to stand next to Orochimaru as he fully extended to his full height.

"It's a shame you had to oppose me Tsunade. You would have lived a longer life." Orochimaru sighed as parts of his face started to peel away. "Regardless I have other ways to heal myself." It was the face of a woman who stared back at the group as Naruto felt a shiver run up his spine.

"What have you done?" Jiraiya gasped. Orochimaru didn't answer only smiled at his old teammates.

"It's been a fun reunion but I must be off." Orochimaru and Kabuto sank into the ground and all that was left was the decomposing body Orochimaru had shed. There was silence for the group that was interrupted by Naruto huffing angrily.

"That's two scars he's given me." Naruto looked down to his new wound which crossed over his old scar making an X pattern on his chest. The others relaxed as the situation became less tense.

"You're lucky you've walked away from both encounters alive brat." Jiraiya said as he ruffled his student's hair.

"Let's go back to the hotel, I can treat your wound better there and give Jiraiya the antidote for the poison. The group made it to the hotel as everyone patched up any wounds they might have and Tsunade tried to get rid of the younger blonds new scar.

"I've managed to heal you as best I can, unfortunately, the poison on Kusanagi didn't allow me to close it before it scarred over."

"It's fine, it's not like the scar will change anything." Naruto replied. The blond turned his head to his sensei who was giggling mightily.

"Oh, but it will, don't you know chicks dig battle scars. I know you spent the night with the young Yamanaka heiress before we left for the mission. I'll bet she'll love the new scar." Jiraiya continued to giggle as he brought out his journal. "I can see it now, Make-out Tactics: Golden Romance!" Naruto flushed slightly before yelling at Jiraiya.

"First of all how do you know about that!? Second, me and Ino aren't like that ya perv!" Tsunade seeing her young charge being harassed walked over to the giggling pervert and sent him through the wall.

"Enough of your antics Jiraiya, Naruto's love life isn't any of your concern."

"I don't have a love life!" The whiskered blond shouted as Shizune giggled to herself as she watched on. The group eventually calmed down and they all left for the leaf at noon. Jiraiya lead the group, he was nursing several bumps on his head, followed by Shizune and her pig Tonton. The two blonds were in the back as Tsunade wanted to speak to Naruto.

"I want to thank you." Naruto walked at a leisure pace as he glanced at the older woman.

"For?"

"For reminding me about my will of fire. I lost myself in my grieving and not one of my loved ones would have wanted that. My brother and Fiancé both wanted to be Hokage and both sensei and grandfather wanted to protect the village so others could live peacefully. So, I figured the best way to honor them would be to follow in their lead, I'll be Hokage for now. At least until you're old enough to take the hat." Tsunade smiled at the young blond as he nodded tearfully at another person believing in his dream. After 2 days of travel, the group made it to the gates of the leaf village as he heard Tsunade whisper to herself. "I'm home."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: New Mission**

Naruto sat in his living room contemplating the last couple of hours. He had spent the last hour debriefing the council with Jiraiya on the mission to retrieve Tsunade. Things were going well until he disclosed his encounter with Itachi along with the traitorous snake sannin. Their involvement had automatically raised the rank of the mission to S-class. This made talking about the details of the mission to anyone who was not a jonin a crime, Naruto was seriously annoyed when some of the stricter members emphasized being punished. The whiskered blond had to hold back an eye-roll, it wasn't like the blond wasn't a walking S-class secret himself. Jiraiya had seen the blonds irritation beginning to rise and sent the blond home as soon as his part of the debriefing was over. He told him he would pass by to talk to him when he was done but it would take at least another hour, more if the council was feeling, chatty. Naruto had also learned from Shizune, who he had run into on his way out, that Tsunade had gone to the hospital already and healed his wounded teammate and his team sensei. Naruto was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard a knock on the door before Jiraiya let himself in not waiting for Naruto to come to answer the door.

"Ya know, you're supposed to wait for someone to let you in right." Naruto deadpanned as Jiraiya let out a laugh.

"That only applies to other ninjas, Jiraiya the Gallant may enter anywhere he wishes!" Jiraiya struck a pose as Naruto rubbed the bridge of his nose as he lamented the fact that all his senseis were so weird. They even got progressively weirder the stronger they got.

'God I hope I don't become a weirdo if I become an S-class ninja.'

Jiraiya composed himself as his features shifted to a more series demeanor. "Ok kid, serious talk time." Naruto sat up straighter his full focus on the white-haired toad sage. "I was going to tell you the moment you became a chuunin but with how hectic things are I put it off." Jiraiya reached into his vest and pulled out a picture of a red-haired kunoichi. "This is Kushina, she was the container of the nine-tails before you. Demon containers are also called jinchuriki so don't be surprised if you ever hear the term used to describe you if you face higher ranked ninja. All Jinchuriki act as war deterrents for their respective villages during times of peace and are often sent to the front lines as a vanguard for any scrimmages between nations as a reminder to others of the power they fight against." Naruto took a second to absorb the information as he stared at the woman who was his predecessor. It was a lot to take in, he knew having the nine-tails sealed inside him made him more valuable to the village but it was another thing entirely to know he was a war deterrent. After a second he finally responded.

"Makes sense, I wouldn't want to fight me. Facing Gaara was hard enough and he didn't even get to use his tenant's chakra." Jiraiya took a deep breath.

"There's something else you need to know about her." Naruto looked up from the picture to look at Jiraiya. "Her full name was Kushina Uzumaki. "Naruto felt his heart skip. "She was also your mother." There was an eerie silence as Naruto looked back at the picture, a thousand and one emotions racing through his eyes as he took in every single detail from the picture. He could hear his heart beating at an astounding pace.

"She's pretty." Naruto's voice cracked as a single tear ran down his eye. Jiraiya allowed the blond a moment to take everything in before he continued his explanation.

"She was a real firecracker and a hell of a Kunoichi. She and your father made big names of themselves during the third war. Things would have turned out very differently for the Leaf without them. She used to drive your old man crazy with her gung-ho attitude." Naruto nodded as he wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

"You know who my father is." There was no question in his tone and Jiraiya let out an inaudible sigh.

"Yes, it's the main secret of why we kept your heritage a secret." Jiraiya reached into his vest once more as he pulled out another picture. "The council argued over letting you know about him, but lately your actions have made them think you're mature enough to handle the information." The toad sage showed the picture to the whiskered blond. It was a picture of two people. His mother was standing to the right clearly pregnant, she had a radiant smile on her face. She was wearing a blue shirt and shorts with what appeared to be a green apron. Naruto inhaled sharply as he saw the man next to her. It was a face he saw almost daily and one when growing up the blond had idolized. Standing next to his mother with equal happiness showing on his face as he touched her stomach was the fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.

"When I first found out about the nine-tails I always wondered why he chose me of all people." Naruto let out a small laugh. "The third always said it was because he believed in me, I asked myself why he would trust me with something as massive as this but it does make sense now. He trusted me because he was my father." Naruto held the picture of his parents tightly as he compared their features to himself.

"You can keep the pictures just try to keep them to yourself. Especially now, because of Orochimaru's attack we've been having some trouble with the Stone village. They've been sending out teams closer to our border and it has the Waterfall village on high alert. Seeing as they're our closest ally at the moment it wouldn't surprise me if you were sent out in the coming weeks for a joint patrol mission with a team of waterfall ninja to patrol their border. The Stone village's hatred for your dad is tremendous, the amount of damage he did to their ranks was a major reason we won the war. This was one of the factors that were taken into account as to why your heritage was kept secret. It wouldn't be the first time someone has targeted the children of a kage to strike at them. Even a dead one." Naruto nodded as Jiraiya patted his head. "How are you feeling? I know it's a lot to take in."

"I'm angry at the bastard for sticking the nine-tails in me but I also understand he had no choice at the time." Jiraiya sat there as the blond vented his emotions.

"I know, but he loved you and your mom so much. When he found out he was going to be a father he was like a little kid being told their birthday had come early and brought all the other holidays with it. He ran around the village to all his friends to tell them and wouldn't shut up about it." Jiraiya had a small smile as Naruto laughed softly.

"I'm just glad I finally know." Naruto kept staring at his parents. The white-haired sannin got up from his chair as he made his way to the door.

"I need to get going but if you need to talk just tell me." Naruto got up and hugged Jiraiya. The two stood there for a minute.

"I'll be fine, thank you." Jiraiya nodded as he left. Naruto made his way over to his bed as he calmed himself down and began to meditate. After a while, he felt himself being pulled into the seal.

"**What do you want?**" Naruto saw that the nine-tails was lazily swaying his tails. He had his left eye slightly open as he stared down at the blond.

"I just wanted to thank you for telling me about my mother." The fox huffed and sent small waves across the water in the seal. "I also wanted to thank you for calming me down during the fight with Orochimaru." The fox closed his eye and turned away from the small human.

"**Just make sure not to lose yourself again. I can't have my container running around like some temperamental child.**" The fox curled into himself as Naruto just nodded. He had seen this reaction from the fox many times, there were days where the fox was talkative and days like today where he became a brick wall to talk too.

"Thank you anyway, I'll come to talk to you some other time alright. See you later." Naruto felt the tug in his navel and was back in his room. He saw it was already late and decided to call it a night. He was drained both mentally from the council meeting and emotionally from the bombshell of finding out who his parents where. Naruto fell asleep with dreams of what it would have been like if the nine-tails never attacked.

The next morning Naruto woke up early and he headed to the memorial stone. He wanted to pay his respect to his parents and now that he finally knew their names he could finally do it. The blond looked at all the names carved in the stone and found his parents names next to each other, Naruto traced the names with his fingers as he sent a quick prayer up. It was a very bittersweet moment, All during his childhood there was a cloud hanging over the blond. Questions that would plague his inner psyche and would attack his self-confidence during his lowest moments. He always wondered if his parents had abandoned him, that they were just like the majority of the villagers and just didn't give a damn about him. Knowing that they loved him, died for him, it cleared any and all doubts he had. The blond was interrupted from his reflections when an ANBU appeared behind him appearing in the standard leaf body flicker.

"Chuunin Uzumaki, you have been summoned to the Hokage's office." Naruto nodded as the masked ninja body flickered away.

'Well, no use in wasting time.' Naruto sent one last look at the memorial stone his gaze solely on his parents. before he also body flickered away.

Inside the Hokage's office sat Tsunade with her Kage hat hanging on her head. Shizune stood beside her mentor with a stack of papers, and Jiraiya stood near the window as he stared at the village below. "Hello Lady Hokage, Shizune, Jiraiya-sensei." The blond received a smile from the raven-haired medic and a wave from the toad sage. Tsunade gave him a quick nod as she looked the blond over.

"I was talking with Jiraiya and the council last night about what Kabuto mentioned happening during the chuunin exam. I need to know what happened between you and your team." Naruto's lips pursed, he really just wanted to forget the whole thing before he nodded and began to explain.

"I was separated from the rest of my team in the forest of death when I was hit by a massive wind jutsu. I was flung back and was attacked by what I know now was a snake summon and it managed to eat me whole." Naruto made a face of disgust as he continued. "I managed to free myself by creating hundreds of clones and bursting the snake from the inside. I traveled my way back to find both Sasuke and Sakura paralyzed from Orochimaru's killing intent and about to be attacked by another of the snake's summons. At this point, I used some of the nine-tails chakra to deal with the snake before trying to fight Orochimaru." Naruto paused at the looks the others were giving him, he developed a tick mark at Jiraiya's 'You're an idiot' face. "I didn't know it was him at the time." The others merely nodded more understanding now. "Anyway, I wasn't able to even breath on him as he smacked me around for about 2 minutes before he cut my connection with the nine-tails and I was knocked out of the fight." Naruto's face scrunched up. "He brought out his damned sword from his mouth and proceeded to play around with Sasuke for a bit when he slashed down with his sword and caught Sasuke by surprise." Naruto's tone grew slightly angry. "Then Sasuke had the marvelous idea to use me for a substitution. I landed on the floor barely conscious and watched Orochimaru bite Sasuke on his neck telling him he would come seek him out before leaving. Sakura grabbed Sasuke and left after that. I managed to heal up because the nine-tails managed to filter some of his chakra through and eventually I met back up with both my team and team 10. After that, we left the forest but had to fight a sound team and Kabuto joined up with us. No doubt keeping an eye on Sasuke for whatever reason Orochimaru wanted." Tsunade had a grim look on her face.

"That is troubling, I knew the Uchiha had problems but this is another level of what we were expecting. Under normal circumstances we would have punished him for using a teammate for a substitution, unfortunately, we can't do anything because of the rules of the chuunin exams. Still, his mental stability is concerning along with his recent encounter with his brother he will be put on watch." Naruto nodded understanding the situation. "There was another reason I brought you here. You have a mission." The blond didn't say anything as he simply nodded expecting this from what Jiraiya had told him yesterday. "As you know the upper-level ninja have been doing there best rooting out any sound village bases in the country along with dealing with the Sand and trying to work out a new treaty with them. This has caused the chuunin to pick up the slack. Normally a newly promoted chuunin would be sent put out on missions with their original genin team or with more experienced group of chuunin but your team is currently out of commission and all of the more experienced chuunin are doing high-level missions."

"So, what is the mission?" Naruto asked.

"Jiraiya told me he talked to you last night about your parents." The whiskered blond let out a low hum to confirm to Tsunade that he had. "Good, did he tell you about the situation with Waterfall and Stone?"

"Yes, he mentioned it."

"Then I won't be too long. There has been an increase in activity with Stone ninja patrolling around the border with Waterfall. We need information and one of Stones most prominent traders Ryuga Takahachi will be staying in the border town of Kuwabara near the land of grass. There is an annual weapons exposition that is happening two weeks from now in the land of rivers and he will be there till then. You along with Hana Inuzuka, Ino Yamanaka, and Ten-Ten will go and extract any information you can about his deals with the Stone village."

"What I would give to be given a mission with a team full of women." Jiraiya let out a giggle as blood ran down his nose but was stopped by the combined killing intent of the two blonds in the room. Both unintentionally mirroring the others thought.

'You perv.'

"Moving on, Hana will be leading this mission she will be able to find your target fairly quickly, Ino will go as she can enter the mind of the target to extract the information while he sleeps. Ten-Ten will be your cover so no one gets too suspicious when you get to Kuwabara town she will act as a merchants daughter to not make any of the foreign traders too nervous. You will go as a back-up in case things go south and a fight erupts." Naruto nodded along.

"When will we be leaving?"

"You and your team will be leaving in two days time, the mission should only last about a week at most."

"Got it, is there anything else?" Tsunade nodded before her eyes softened.

"How's your scar?"

"It's fine." Naruto rubbed his chest and his green necklace fell out because of the movement. "Honestly I haven't even thought about it." Tsunade nodded and she dismissed the blond.

"Naruto." The blond turned back to his Hokage.

"Yes?" Tsunade smiled at him.

"Be careful on your mission." Naruto grinned back.

"I will." Naruto made his way out with Jiraiya walking with him.

"C'mon kid, we're going to training ground 34."

"Ok, let's go." Naruto and Jiraiya ran across the rooftops, The blond looked around and saw that most of the repairs to the village had been done with only some minor cleaning needed. The villagers kept themselves busy with errands as children played in the streets. The two toad summoners stopped in the clearing that was training ground 34 after 5 minutes of travel, the clearing was a simple patch of grass with dense forest all around.

"We need to talk about something series kid."

"How many more life-altering secrets are there?" Jiraiya quickly shook his head.

"No nothing like that. I need to talk to you about the organization Itachi and Kisame belong too."

"You mentioned them the other day, the Akatsuki."

"That's right, they're a group of S-rank ninja who are targeting you and the other jinchuriki. I'll be training you into the dirt whenever I have the time. I just got some intel today telling me the Akatsuki won't be mobilizing for another 3 years so we have time to prepare. When you get back from your mission we'll be upping your taijutsu training."

"So, there's a group of _S-class_ criminals after me?"

"Yes." The two stood there looking at each other in complete silence.

"Ok, is there anything else? " Jiraiya shook his head.

"No, why don't you go rest for your mission take these days off. You deserve the rest."

"Right, I'll see you around then." Jiraiya ruffled Naruto's hair as he left. The blond stood there for minutes allowing the information to sink in before he started walking to the memorial stone. Naruto thought about how fast and powerful Itachi, Kisame, and Orochimaru are and the level he would have to reach to stand a chance. Naruto came to the clearing of the memorial stone and saw Kakashi standing there looking at the stone. Naruto saw his team sensei look from the stone to him with an eye smile.

"Hello Naruto, congratulations on your promotion." Naruto didn't say anything as he walked next to Kakashi and looked at his parents' name. They stood side by side in awkward silence for a couple of minutes before the younger man replied.

"Thanks." Naruto's tone didn't betray any emotion. The masked ninja let out a small sigh as he stared at his student.

"Listen Naruto, I never meant to ignore you and Sakura the way I did. I honestly thought Sasuke had the best chance to be promoted. I was going to turn my attention to you and Sakura after he was promoted." Naruto kept staring at the stone not making any indication that he had heard Kakashi though on the inside we felt his anger starting to rise.

"What if he wasn't promoted?" Kakashi blinked twice before looking at his student.

"Excuse me?" Naruto let out a sigh as he turned his steely gaze to Kakashi.

"What if he wasn't promoted? What if he went and won the tournament and wasn't promoted? Would you have continued to only train Sasuke if none of us got promoted?"

"No, I would have trained all of you in that scenario." Naruto scoffed.

"Are you sure you would be able to do that? After all, we've been a team for 6 months and aside from some basic teamwork drills the only time you've ever taught us something worthwhile was during the mission to wave." Kakashi shook his head.

"You guys needed the teamwork drills. You weren't ready for more advanced teachings." Naruto glared at the older man his eyes turning purple as the fox's chakra reacted to his rage before he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"And Sasuke was? Because out of the three of us he was the one who needed to learn to be a good teammate the most. Instead, you spent the month leading up to the chuunin exams giving him one on one training and leaving me and Sakura to practice our tree climbing." Naruto turned away from his sensei and went back to staring at the memorial stone his eyes turning back to normal as his temper was back under control.

"I made mistakes leading this team and I am sorry." Kakashi's voice was solemn.

"Do you know what the worst part is Kakashi?" The silver-haired ninja let out an internal wince at the lack of sensei. "It was that you didn't believe in me enough to even try and train me for the finals." Kakashi let out a visible wince at that. "You keep telling me we were supposed to be a team but for the last two months you've shown me and Sakura that Sasuke was your student and we were just two tag-a-longs." Kakashi looked at his student with hurt evident in his one visible eye his shoulders slumped.

"I never meant to push you and Sakura away Naruto." The chuunin just sighed as he turned away from the stone after giving a small prayer and started heading to the village.

"Maybe not but you did. I'll see you later Kakashi." With that, the blond body flickered back to his apartment. Naruto went inside and was suddenly overcome by exhaustion as he headed to his room to take a much-needed nap.

Naruto woke up several hours later when his stomach rumbled he got up groggily and decided to eat out as he didn't have any food in his home. 'Looks like it's Ichiraku time.' The blond thought as he made his way to his favorite ramen stand. As Naruto got inside he let saw a familiar face in one of the chairs.

"Hey, Naruto! Congrats on the promotion, I can't believe you're the same rank as I am now." Naruto let out a smile as he sat next to his academy instructor.

"It's nice to see you Iruka-sensei." The two sat and began to catch up while they ate. Naruto spent a good hour telling his old sensei about his mission to find Tsunade and his second encounter with Orochimaru. The two soon left with Iruka paying for the meal as a gift for the blonds promotion. Naruto spent the rest of the day and the next going over his book on fuinjutsu. It was 8 in the morning when Naruto started to head off to the western gate to meet with his squad. His thoughts kept cycling back to what Jiraiya had told him about the Akatsuki. Naruto saw that he was the last to arrive as his three teammates had already gathered and with that made haste to join them, putting all thoughts about the dangerous organization in the backburner of his mind.

**A/N: **I meant to update last week but things got busy for me, just as a heads up the next update is gonna be in 2 weeks most likely I'll try to do it next week if I can but things at home need to settle down a bit more. Anyway I hope you guys enjoy how the stories going and I'd like to thank you guys for the positive feedback.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Urgent Situation!**

Naruto walked up to his waiting team, Hana and her 3 ninja dogs noticed him first and sent him a polite nod and smile. This action caused Ino and Ten-Ten who was talking to the older kunoichi to turn around and look at the approaching blond. Both of their eyes widened when they saw the chuunin vest the whiskered blond was wearing.

"Naruto! I had heard you got promoted, Congrats!" Naruto smiled at Ino as he walked to stand with the group.

"I knew you were going to get promoted after the matches you had in the finals and the way you acted during the invasion." Naruto turned to look at Neji and Lee's teammate as he gave her a small nod.

"Thanks, How's Lee doing with his recovery?" Ten-Ten let out a sad sigh.

"He's not doing to great, lady Tsunade will be performing a risky operation today but it's the only chance he has of being a ninja again." Naruto placed his hand the kunoichi's shoulder in a show of camaraderie.

"He'll make it through, he's the hardest worker I know and a fierce fighter. He won't let something like this slow him down."

"Yeah, Lee is super strong. He'll pull through." Ino said as the three young members stood silent for a moment before they were brought to attention by Hana.

"Alright, is everyone ready to head out?" Hana received three 'yes'' and pulled out a picture from her kunai pouch. The photo showed a middle-aged man who was slightly overweight. He had black hair cut short and had brown eyes, he was wearing a blue and red suit and had a scar on his cheek. "This is Ryuga Takahachi, he's a weapons manufacturer that works mostly with the Stone village and the Grass village. We will be extracting information from him while he stays in one of our border towns, Kuwabara. "Hana's gaze focused on the female blond. "Ino." The platinum blond stood at attention. "You'll be the key to this, when we find him we will wait for a moment where he will be alone and then you'll use your clans jutsu to get any and all information you can on his recent business with the Stone village. We'll be traveling by tree so it should take us about two days to reach the town, if our info is right he'll be staying in Kuwabara town for the next five days and after we get there we can find an appropriate time to get to him. Do you have any questions?" The three younger ninjas didn't say anything and nodded in understanding. "Good, then let's get going." With that, the four sped off.

That Night Naruto sat by the fire watching his surroundings, they had drawn lots to determine turn order of who would be taking watch that night. Hana had drawn first with Ten-Ten getting second and Ino third. They would each stay on watch for 2 hours letting everyone get six hours of sleep. Naruto stared at the stars as he thought about all the new information he had received the last couple of days. He thought of his dream to be Hokage, which led into thoughts of the third and eventually his train of thought reached the fourth, his father. Naruto felt weird thinking about him as such, for his whole life he had heard stories about how great a ninja the forth was and he was more of a figure, an ideal to strive for than a person to the blond. Naruto reached into his kunai pouch and brought out the picture of his mother, he had started a habit of carrying it around everywhere he went. He had never had a female role-model in his life and finding out about his mother had filled a hole in his heart he always craved. He would see the relationship other children had with their mothers and it was such an alien concept for him to grasp, now that changed ever so slightly. There was something that calmed him whenever he would look at her photo and Naruto lost himself in thinking about the what ifs.

"She's pretty, who is that?" Naruto was so lost in thought he jumped slightly as he heard Ino's voice speak from behind him. His eyes followed Ino as she sat beside him her own gaze never leaving the picture.

"That's my mom." Ino's drowsy eyes widen and became more alert. Naruto's eyes went back to staring at the picture, a small smile forming on his face.

"I thought you didn't know who she was?" Naruto remembered how some of the older kids in the academy used to bully him for not knowing who his parents were and his grip on the photo tightened slightly.

"I found out a couple of days ago, she used to be a jonin. She died during the nine-tails attack." Ino nodded and the two sat silently watching the fire.

"You have her facial structure and nose."

"Yeah, I kinda wish I had her hair color though, I think I would look good in red."

"Blond works for you." Naruto turned to Ino who flipped her hair. "Besides, blond is the best." Naruto let out a grin as the two started making breakfast for their teammates who were in the process of waking up. The group exchanged pleasantries and once they ate breakfast they started their journey again.

The two days of travel passed quickly and the group reached the edge of Kuwabara town without any difficulty. Hana stopped near the entrance of the town and addressed her teammates. "Alright team we'll split up here and search for Ryuga if you find him radio in using these earpieces." Hana handed each of the teens a small earpiece. "From then we'll shadow him for the rest of the day and try to get as much information as possible about his routine. Ino, Naruto, you guys will take the west side of town and Ten-Ten and I will look in the east." The three nodded as Naruto and Ino separated from the group. "We'll meet up at sundown at the town center." The two blonds nodded and entered the town as the two kunoichis ran to the other side of the town to start their own search. Naruto created 10 clones and had them use the transformation jutsu to disguise themselves as they went into town to search. As Naruto and Ino traveled into town they noticed the streets were bustling with vendors as people ran around.

"It's pretty busy it'll be a challenge to find him." Ino said

"Let's check the weapons shops, for now, we can start searching diners and bars closer to lunch time." Ino nodded as the two headed off. They spent several hours checking multiple locations and found nothing, Naruto had received memories of his clones who also came up empty-handed. The two blonds entered a local restaurant when they heard their radio earpieces come on. "Naruto, Ino, we found Ryuga, we're about to try to gain more information about his schedule right now. Make your way over to us." Naruto hit his earpiece as he replied.

"Copy, well make our way over to you now."

"Got it, we are currently at the Jade Inn casino, we will wait for you on top of the roof of the building across the street from the casino when we're done. See you soon." The two blonds met up with Hana and Ten-Ten after 20 minutes where the older chuunin began explaining what they had learned.

"Ryuga is will be leaving tonight with a small group of mercenaries, We'll follow tonight and get him when we see an opening. We need to get to him before he leaves Fire country for security reasons."

"How many mercenaries are there?" Naruto asked Hana.

"There was a group of three following him but we gathered they would be meeting with another group of three outside." The four spent the day taking turns watching Ryuga and his group while other members gathered food and other materials. The sun was sitting low in the sky when Ryuga's group left town, Naruto and his squad following behind them in the trees. It was an hour later when they noticed the group was slowing down. Naruto looked around the whole situation feeling off to him.

"Be on guard, The Haimaru brothers picked up a scent up ahead they'll be meeting the others soon." Hana received three nods as the group stood high above in the tree's, waiting for the rest of the mercenaries to arrive. Hana ordered the group to the ground and the group hid among the shrubbery. Naruto looked around as he felt tense, something was putting him on edge. Up ahead they could see a single figure walking up when they heard Ryuga shout out.

"AH, Finally! I've been waiting for you Kazuma." Naruto heard Hana curse as the figure became visible to everyone. He was stood around 6 feet and was wearing pure black pants with white wrappings on his ankles. He was wearing a dark brown vest but not wearing a shirt so scars could be clearly seen on his chest. On his forehead, there was a scratched out forehead protector with the symbol of a stone.

"That's Kazuma Ioda a B-rank missing ninja from the Stone Village." Hana's statement made everyone tense up as Naruto started to observe every detail he could. Naruto saw the man smirk as he let out a chuckle.

"Sorry, I had to do some quick preparation." Kazuma's tone was lively and jovial.

'I thought there were three of them?' Thought Naruto as his instincts screamed at him to move.

"Dodge!" The blond screamed out as the land under the leaf ninjas shifted and formed earth spikes, Naruto managed to push himself and Ino out of the way just in time. Hana being in the center was able to push Ten-Ten out of the way but a spike managed to pierce her side. Hana let out a scream as she fell to the ground clutching her wound as the Haimaru triplets surrounded their wounded partner. Naruto looked to the side and saw two ninjas emerge from the ground. One was wearing grey pants with a dark red shirt. His black hair reached his shoulder blades and a bang covered his left eye. The other wore a skin-tight blue body suit and was bald. Both had green eyes and had scratched stone forehead protectors.

"Well well well. What do we have here? A little far from home aren't you?" Naruto glanced to the main road where Kazuma stood in front of the frightened Ryuga.

"Leaf Ninja!? What is the meaning of this!" Ryuga gained more confidence as he spoke once he was firmly behind Kazuma.

"Negima spotted them following you and we decided to take care of them." Ryuga looked at Kazuma with gratitude as he and the rest of his mercenary group began moving away and the rogue stone ninja jumped up to a tree branch.

"Right, take care of this quickly then, I'll throw in a nice bonus when you're done." Kazuma smirked as he looked at the leaf ninja. Naruto glanced at his teammates and quickly formulated a plan.

"Ino, Ten-Ten take Hana to safety and go after the target, we can't have him leaving without getting the information." The two nodded and quickly moved over to Hana who shot the blond a concerned look as she began treating her wound. Kazuma let out a laugh as he jumped down to the forest floor as he eyed the downed Hana.

"What makes you think I'll let any of you go? You're all so pretty, I'm sure I can get some value out of you." The two younger girls shivered as Hana glared at the stone ninja. Kazuma had to quickly bring his arm up to block a strike as Naruto surged forward and delivered a punch. Kazuma's eyes widened as he was blasted back and hit a tree. "Coating your arm in earth chakra to increase its weight and hardness, smart. Negima, Sakazu!" The two other rogue ninjas dashed at the whiskered blond who crossed his fingers and uttered his most used jutsu.

"Multi-shadow clone Jutsu!" Naruto created 20 clones as they spread out. Two of the blonds rushed the charging stone ninjas but were dispelled immediately making a smoke cloud that blocked their view. Naruto was going through hand seals with his clones when the ground shifted beneath him.

"Earth Style: Earth Flow Jutsu!" Naruto managed to jump away just in time to void Kazuma's jutsu, he watched his clones get dispelled when they were swallowed by the shifting earth as tree's toppled over.

"I got you now!" Naruto brought up his arms in a cross shape as he blocked a punch from the bald rock ninja that sent him rocketing to the ground where he was met with a kick to the face from the long-haired one.

'Shit! They cover each other well.' Naruto glanced back and saw that Ino and Ten-Ten had taken Hana away. 'Good, I can cut loose now that I don't have to worry about them.' Naruto was brought out from his musings when he brought out a Kunai to block a sword swing from Kazuma. The blonds arms and legs buckled from the strength of the blow. 'That thing must weigh a ton!' Naruto was forced to jump back when the two companions of Kazuma performed a pincer maneuver and tried to stab him from his sides with kunai. The bald ninja came forward and tried to punch Naruto who spun around the blow and kicked the older man away. Naruto created two clones to distract Kazuma while he sped off to deal with the long-haired one. The rock ninja tried a lunging stab so Naruto used his kunai to parry the blow away from himself. The blond was about to thrust his own kunai into the rock ninjas neck when his instincts screamed at him to duck. Naruto felt the wind slice above his head as some of his hairs fell in front of his face, he quickly spun and had to block Kazuma's sword once more, this time he was sent skidding back as his kunai chipped and cracked from the force of the blow.

"You're more skilled than you look. Most chuunin and even some jonin would have fallen by now." Naruto glanced at his kunai as he threw it away and brought out another. The bald ninja had managed to re-grouped with his companions.

"Negima, Attack pattern alpha!" Naruto saw the long-haired man yell to his partner as the two rushed Naruto. The bald man -Negima- tried to do a sweeping low kick. Naruto stepped back to avoid the attack. His partner Sakazu leaped off his back to deliver a dropkick, Naruto dodged to the left and was forced to once again block a sword a swing from Kazuma. His eyes widened when he observed the blade more closely.

'His blade is black!' Naruto had to reinforce his body with chakra so he wasn't sent skidding back again. Naruto saw from the corner of his eye that Negima and Sakazu were going through hand seals. Pain exploded from the blond's chest as he was sent flying from a kick from Kazuma, who taunted the blond.

"You're not the only one who knows how to augment his hits with earth chakra kid." Naruto landed on his back and was able to flip himself back unto his feet.

"Earth Style: Rock Spears!" Dual shouts rang out as dozens of spears hurled at the whiskered blond who let out a curse. Naruto blazed through his own hand seals as he slammed his hands onto the ground.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" His mud-wall came up just in time to block the spears which shattered on impact. Naruto used the opportunity to create five clones and had them dash into the trees and hide themselves, Naruto himself jumped up to a nearby tree just in time to dodge a giant rolling boulder that tore through his mud-wall, he clutched his chest as he felt more pain from the wound Kazuma had given him.

'Damn it, that might have broken a rib.' Naruto thought as he heard Kazuma begin to speak.

"I think that's enough playing around. Negima, Sakazu go deal with the others I'll handle the blond." Just before the two left the group was forced to jump back as a fireball came out of the forest.

"No, you won't. I'll end this now." Naruto finished his sentence as two more fireballs flew at the Stone ninjas forcing them to separate even further. Naruto saw his clones come up behind Negima as Kazuma and Sakazu were being distracted by hails of kunai and fireballs from his clones hiding in the trees. The two clones sped though hand seals and called out their jutsus.

"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!" "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" The original orange flames of the fireball turned blue as they started burning with more intensity, being fueled by the wind jutsu the fire roared as it tuned everything in its path. Negima was unable to move out of the way completely as his legs were severely burned from the flames and he screamed out in pain. Naruto body flickered next to the downed ninja and stabbed his kunai through his skull ending his life.

"NEGIMA!" Naruto heard Sakazu shout out in rage as he charged the blond.

"Sakazu no!" Kazuma tried to warn his comrade but it was too late. A clone came out of the bushes and slammed his electrified hands into Sakazu's chest.

"Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder!" Lighting surged from the clones hand as Sakazu began to spasm and after a couple of seconds fell to the ground smoking and charred. Naruto saw Kazuma grit his teeth as he slammed his hands on the ground.

"Earth Style: Earth Shift!" The entire area began to shake as slabs of the earth began to flip upwards uprooting trees and dispelling all of Naruto's clones. there was now a circle around Kazuma of clear land from the flipped earth. "You will pay for killing them you damned brat!" Kazuma body flickered to blond and swung down with his blackened sword. Naruto channeled chakra to his arms as he blocked the strike. The blond had to hold a grimace as his chest once again began to hurt. Kazuma began a series of strikes with his sword and the blond was put on the defensive just barely keeping up with the older ninjas speed. The two continued to clash as sparks formed every time their blades clashed. Kazuma moved swiftly in a tornado of blows andNaruto was being pushed back to the edge of the clearing unable to do anything. Because of the reach advantage, Naruto was unable to get in close and he wasn't able to escape as Kazuma was just as fast as the blond. Kazuma thrust his sword forward trying to impale the blond who had bumped into a tree.

'There!' Thought Naruto as he shifted to his side as the blade grazed his chuunin jacket and impaled the tree. Naruto exploded forward as he started to gather and spin chakra in his right hand, Kazuma's eyes widened and filled with a burning hate when he saw the jutsu the blond now held in the palm of his hand.

"Rasengan!" The whiskered blond slammed his jutsu into the older rock ninjas chest as the Rasengan began to grind into him, Kazuma was sent spinning away as the Rasengan exploded in his chest. Naruto watched as Kazuma began coughing up blood as his breathing slowly died out and the blond collapsed onto the ground.

"You did look familiar, I just didn't expect you to be the son of that devil." Kazuma's chest stopped moving as his whispered last words echoed in the clearing.

'son of a devil huh.' Naruto thought as he gazed at the dead ninja before his head snapped to the far side of the clearing when heard dogs barking. Hana and her ninja dogs came barreling into the new clearing, her side bandaged and marked with her blood from her wound. She looked around and saw the dead bodies of the rogue ninjas and let out a low whistle.

"Damn, I rushed over here for nothing, looks like you handled everything." Naruto chuckled and winced as his chest reminded him of his injury.

"I think I broke a rib in the fight." Hana kneeled down next to the blond as her hands began glowing green and she touched the blond's chest.

"Yeah, you have two broken ribs and 3 cracked ones. Give me five minutes and I should be able to at least mend the broken bones and make the pain lessen a bit." As Hana began to work on the blonds injury Naruto questioned her about Ino and Ten-Ten.

"Did the others get Ryuga?"

"Yes, when I left them Ten-Ten had taken care of his mercenary guards and Ino was in the middle of extracting the information." Hana finished healing the blond as the two chuunin stood up. "Let's get going, we don't know if Ryuga hired any more rogue ninjas." Naruto nodded as they left to go find their teammates. The two chuunin followed the main road and found the three mercenaries tied up as Ten-Ten watched over them. Ino was not too far away with a tied up Ryuga who seemed to be passed out as she held his head in her hands.

"Naruto! You're ok. I'm glad Hana was able to find you." Ten-Ten waved the two over as the two injured members sat near the two genins.

"How long has Ino been interrogating Ryuga?" Hana said.

"She's been at it for at least ten minutes, We were able to get them easily."

"Good." Hana turned to the whiskered blond. "Naruto, you did well out there."

"Thanks, It was tough though, they had amazing teamwork." The trio's attention was brought to Ryuga who let out a sharp yell as his head dipped further down as Ino released his head. Ino opened her eyes as a grim look overcame her face. The two chuunin glanced at each other with frowns as Hana spoke up.

"Ino, What did you find?" Ino looked over at Hana and Naruto before she took a deep breath.

"Ryuga has been meeting with many council members of the Stone village for the last week. They've been negotiating prices for mass manufacturing of supplies. The first shipment will be leaving a factory in river country for the Stone village in three weeks with regular shipments coming every two weeks." Naruto frowned as he stared at the moon which shined with an ominous light.

'They're preparing for war.' Naruto thought as the group stayed silent as they digested the information Ino had given them. A heavy silence lingered with the group until Hana finally spoke up breaking the tension that had formed.

"We need to get back to the village with this information now." The others nodded when a shrill cry of a hawk was heard and a messenger bird swooped low and landed on Hana's shoulder carrying a message from the village. Hana grabbed the message and read it, her face cycled through many emotions before it eventually settled into a fierce scowl.

"Sasuke Uchiha has gone rogue. He was spotted leaving the village by his teammate and because of how undermanned we are at the moment the Hokage was forced to send a group of genin to chase after him. She's requesting we send any back up we can to re-enforce them as we are currently the closest team to their location." Naruto closed his eyes as he let out a long breath as Ino and Ten-Ten watched on with looks of shock and anger respectively.

'Sasuke you idiot.' Naruto opened his eyes and looked towards Hana. "Hana, you should take Ino back to the village and Ten-Ten and I will go back up the retrieval team." Ino shot the blond a glare.

"No way I'm going too!" Naruto glared back as Ino flinched slightly.

"Ino, you have all the information from Ryuga, we can't afford any delays in informing the village and Hana is already hurt. Me and Ten-Ten going makes the most sense we're the most combat-ready plus Hana will be able to sniff out any enemies before you encounter them." Ino was about to retort when Hana interrupted her.

"Ino, Naruto is right this makes the most sense." Ino huffed but didn't argue any further. "Ten-Ten, are you up for going as re-enforcement?" The weapons specialist nodded.

"Yes, I'm ready." Hana nodded as she glanced at Naruto.

"Are you sure you're ok to go?" Naruto patted his chest twice and noticed he had a slight discomfort but it wasn't anything debilitating.

"Yeah, I'm fine to go." Hana nodded once.

"Alright, then we'll meet you guys back in the village we don't have time to waste." The group split off as they headed to their destinations. Naruto jumped through the tree's with Ten-Ten as a hard look came to his eyes.

'Sasuke, I won't let you get away with another betrayal.'


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Sasuke's Retrieval**

Naruto and Ten-Ten soared from tree top to tree top at a constant speed. They had been traveling for 5 hours total with a 30-minute break thrown in the middle. Most of the journey had been made in very tense silence, Ten-Ten had tried to initiate conversation but Naruto had been too caught up in his thoughts to properly respond. The duo was close to the sixth hour of their journey when they heard a loud boom followed by a slight tremor. The two teens glanced at each other as they made their way to the tree's apex and saw a giant smoke cloud in the relatively close by as a concerned look crossed Ten-Ten's face

"That can't be good, I hope they don't have too much trouble capturing Sasuke." Naruto looked at Ten-Ten before he replied.

"Let's pick up the pace just-in-case."

"Right!" The two speed off to the direction of the dust cloud and when they got there they found a corpse of a sound ninja with orange hair styled into a mohawk inside a big crater. Both Ten-Ten and Naruto let out a grimace knowing that the retrieval team no doubt encountered resistance, off in the distance they spotted Choji slowly limping to a tree with an arrow pointing east, presumably showing where the rest of the team headed. Naruto and Ten-Ten got on either side of Choji as they helped him lay down. Choji looked startled, his eyes were unfocused as he looked at the two and his eyes slowly lit up in recognition.

"He-hey guys." Choji's voice was weak and horse.

"Choji, what happened?" Naruto said to his kind-hearted comrade.

"Shikamaru, Neji, Sakura, K-Kiba and I were sent out to find Sasuke." Choji let out a bloody cough as Naruto and Ten-Ten tried to help him. "He was be-being kept in some weird circular box being es-escorted by four sound n-ninjas." Naruto saw Choji was losing consciousness. "Tell, Shika I did it, I beat him." Choji finally lost his battle with unconsciousness as Ten-Ten let out a startled gasp.

"His heartbeat is slowing down." Naruto let out a curse as he summoned two shadow clones who slowly picked up the injured Choji.

"I'll have my clones take him back to the village, we need to hurry. " Ten-Ten nodded as the two took off following the arrow left behind by the retrieval team. As they traveled Naruto noticed something weird. "There's spider-webs everywhere." Ten-Ten looked back at the blond chuunin with a raised eyebrow.

"So? We must be near a nest."

"The webbings way too big for normal spiders, the only giant spiders that live in Fire country are in the forest of death. Let's just be careful going forward." The two eventually heard another weak voice speak from up ahead.

"It's too late you know, Sasuke is already gone, He belongs to Lord Orochimaru now." The voice laughed as the two leaf ninja rushed forward and came upon a horrifying sight. Neji was propped up against a tree, a massive wound piercing through his shoulder. Laying face up staring at the sky was another sound ninja. This one had six arms and his breathing was barely noticeable.

"It doesn't matter what you say, I believe my comrades will succeed." Ten-Ten brought her hands up to cover her mouth once she saw the condition her teammate was in. Naruto grit his teeth as and he saw the six-armed sound ninja who had been mocking Neji stop breathing.

"So they sent you as back up." Neji coughed up a tremendous amount of blood as Naruto and Ten-Ten tried to stop his bleeding.

"Neji, don't speak, save your strength. " Ten-Ten brought out her medical supplies and began to cover Neji's wound as best as she could with Naruto helping with his very limited first aid knowledge, they were able to clog wound and slow the bleeding.

"I trust you to finish the mission for me, Naruto." Neji's head dipped as he fell into unconsciousness. Ten-Ten began to try and lay him down only for Naruto to stop her suddenly.

"Why did you stop me!" Ten-Ten yelled at the blond.

"We can't move him, look at his shoulder, if we move him now he'll die of blood loss." Ten-Ten looked devastated at being unable to help her teammate. Naruto bit his thumb as he remembered something Jiraiya had told him. "Summoning Jutsu." Ten-Ten looked at Naruto in confusion as a small red toad appeared.

"Yo, what's up Naruto." From the smoke cloud emerged a small red toad.

"Kichi, I need you to deliver an urgent message to the Hokage. We need a medical team to come pick up a gravely wounded comrade." Kichi turned around and his eyes widened as he saw Neji.

"Yikes, Alright I'll be as fast as I can Naruto." Gamakichi gave Naruto a salute

"Thanks, Kichi." Gamakichi left and Naruto created three clones, one began to press Neji's wound to try and slow the blood loss as much as possible. The other two clones jumped into the trees to stand watch so no one could target the downed Neji.

"We need to keep going Ten-Ten, there's nothing more we can do for now." Ten-Ten swallowed hard as she wiped a few stray tears from her eyes.

"Yeah, your right. Let's go." Naruto saw Ten-Ten give a small prayer for Neji before she joined him in the trees and the duo once again followed the trail the rest of the retrieval team left behind.

'Damn it. This isn't good at all, these guys are no joke if they left Neji half dead. Damn these sound ninja!' Naruto felt his anger rise when he and Ten-Ten had to cover their eyes as a flash bang went off in the distance. The two looked at each other before heading in the direction of the flashbang when they started hearing a flute playing shortly followed by sounds of trees being hit. They saw a couple of trees topple over as the two came into a clearing. They saw a red-haired kunoichi wearing the same uniform as the other sound ninjas. Naruto and Ten-Ten were shocked by her appearance as she had unnatural dark skin tone and horns curving around her head. Naruto saw Shikamaru was surrounded by three demonic looking ogres as he desperately ducked and dodged their blows. One was wearing a dark green full-body suit with its hair covering its face fully, it was also wielding a giant studded metal club. Another was wearing only dark pants and had and had a blindfold over his bald, scared head, it had spikes tied around his forearm with two sticking out in front of its fist and one at the elbow. The final one was by far the creepiest as it had maroon pants and had its upper body retrained by bandages with his head looking straight up. Thinking quickly he sped at the red-haired kunoichi as he began to channel earth chakra into his arm turning it black, Naruto managed to punch the red-headed sound kunoichi in the face, her flute flew from her hands into a nearby bush. The sound kunoichi was sent flying into one of her demons and it sent them tumbling away. Naruto looked back at his comrade and shouted.

"Ten-Ten, now!" Ten-Ten took advantage and unleashed a storm of kunai at the two remaining demons, they began to backpedal from the rain of weaponry. Shikamaru took the opening to jump away and stand near his comrades.

"Man, I'm glad you guys are here. This whole mission has become incredibly troublesome."

"MOTHER FUCKER! I'm going to TEAR YOU APART!" The red-haired women got up her three demons falling in line behind her.

"Where's the rest of your team?" Shikamaru looked back at Ten-Ten and took a moment to catch his breath.

"Kiba got separated from us while battling another sound ninja, Sakura went ahead to chase after another sound ninja came to see why the sound team hadn't arrived yet. " Naruto let out a curse knowing whoever Orochimaru would send wouldn't be some weak ninja or even someone at the current level of the sound team.

"Don't IGNORE ME!" The three had to jump back as the ogre with the full-body suit attacked bringing down his massive club down between the trio.

"Naruto!" Said blond looked at Shikamaru. "Go on ahead me and Ten-Ten will deal with her and then head after Kiba! Sakura is by herself she needs the most help. They're headed for the border!" Ten-Ten brought out a staff and whacked the blind-folded ogre away from Shikamaru. Ten-Ten spun around a gave Naruto a determined nod

"Go on, we got this." Naruto nodded back at Ten-Ten before he took off.

"No, you don't you shithead! You aren't getting away from me!" The red-haired kunoichi rushed the blond only to come to a sudden halt.

"Shadow possession success." Naruto took the opportunity and sped off to find his wayward teammates trusting his comrades to come out on top in their confrontations. Naruto pumped chakra through his body as he increased his speed to a blistering level, after several minutes Naruto came to clearing with three people, two were very familiar and one was a complete stranger.

"LEAF HURRICANE!" Naruto watched Lee shout as he delivered a flying spin kick to a white-haired teenager who blocked with his forearm. The white-haired teen was wearing a gray-lavender zip-up shirt and black pants. He was wearing a large purple rope around his waist that Naruto had seen some of the other sound ninja wear. Sakura was standing away from the conflict as the two fighters continued to exchange blows, she looked disheveled and tired. Naruto saw various bones burst from the sound ninja's chest as he stopped a kick from Lee, Lee disengaged quickly. While the white-haired sound ninja was distracted with Lee Naruto saw an opening to strike. Naruto performed a body flicker as he gathered chakra in his palm to perform his most deadly jutsu.

"RASENGAN!" Naruto hit the white-haired ninja in the back launching him into the tree line where his body left a trail of destruction. Lee and Sakura looked on with surprise at seeing the blond ninja come out of nowhere to attack their foe.

"Naruto!" Sakura's voice was full of relief at seeing her teammate show up just in time.

"Greetings friend Naruto! You-"

"More trash coming to try and interfere with Lord Orochimaru's plan." Whatever Lee was going to say was cut-off by the sound ninja coming out of the woods. "It matters not in the end, the ritual is almost complete." Naruto then noticed a cylindrical container with many different seals written over it as it began to release smoke. Naruto's instincts flared and he quickly leaned his head to the left as and he heard something impact the tree's behind him, he saw the sound ninja lower his arm. Lee made his way to stand next to the blond chuunin his eyes trained on their enemy.

"Naruto, our opponent uses his bones as weapons, we must be very careful, he can attack in a multitude of ways." Naruto nodded his focus switching from the container to the present threat.

"Are you ok to be out here Lee?" Naruto asked with concern seeping into his voice.

"Yes! My surgery went off without a hitch." Naruto didn't say anything more as their enemy charged with frightening speed. Naruto saw their opponent reach up to his shoulder where a piece a bone stuck out, with a sickening squelch he pulled out the piece of bone revealing that it resembled a short sword. Sakura who was near the tree line tried to help by throwing a kunai, the sound ninja swiped to the left and easily cut the kunai Sakura had thrown at him in half not even breaking his stride.

'Oh, you got to be kidding me!' Thought Naruto as he watched the bone sword slice through the tempered metal so easily. Lee took the initiative and intercepted the sound ninja with a spin kick that was avoided easily, Lee was about to be stabbed when Naruto struck out with his blackened arm.

"No, you don't!" Naruto forced the sound ninja to block his strike, the force of the blow making the teenager slide back half a foot. Lee jumped over Naruto and brought down an axe kick that was swatted away. Before the blond could go for another strike both Naruto and Lee had to jump away when the white-haired teen grew spikes all over his body. The blond noticed that the sound ninja had weird markings that were spreading slowly covering over half his body. The white-haired teen let out a bloody cough as he hunched over, Lee and Naruto were about to attack while he was vulnerable but were distracted when the top of the cylinder container was blasted off and a winged figure flew out and landed in the midst of the smoke. There was a tense silence where the four occupants of the clearing watched as the wings retreated into the back of the figure and soon after the smoke cleared revealing an obsidian eye.

"Sasuke Uchiha" The sound ninja spoke to the Uchiha as the smoke fully dissipated showing his form. "Lord Orochimaru has been expecting you." Sakura had tears gathering in her eyes and Lee looked on in silence. Naruto grit his teeth at the appearance of his once teammate, he had flame-like markings covering half his face with his left eye having an unnatural black sclera and a yellow iris. Sasuke flexed his hands to test their mobility.

"I feel." Sasuke let out a long shuddering breath. "Incredible." His gaze then turned to Naruto and he let out a scowl. "Naruto" Sasuke's voice carried across the clearing breaking the eerie silence that had engulfed it. "It seems you got promoted, I didn't realize the village was so desperate they would promote you of all people." Sasuke's tone was condescending and scathing.

"Sasuke Uchiha." The sound ninja repeated, his voice slightly harder than before. "Our Lord Orochimaru has been waiting for you." The sound ninja made his way over to recently released leaf ninja who frowned at the new face.

"And who are you?" Sasuke asked with an uninterested tone.

"My name is Kimimaro, leader of the sound five. Now, you must be headed off." Sasuke looked over at Naruto and locked his eyes with his, Steely blue met black and yellow before the raven-haired teen scoffed and turned around as he leaped away. Naruto quickly took off to follow but was stopped by a kick to the face that sent him through a tree by the now named Kimimaro.

"Sasuke wait!" Naruto saw Sakura take off after Sasuke, the blond was unable to stop his once teammate as Kimimaro began his assault once again. Naruto was able to dodge several sword swipes when Kimimaro used a faint to make Naruto step back, Kimimaro stomped on the blonds exposed foot and impaled it the next moment with a bone that quickly grew out of his heel. Kimimaro head-butted the blond who grit his teeth in pain, as the white-haired teen pulled his sword back to stab him, Naruto punched the older teen in the chest with a blackened arm as hard as he could sending the older teen stumbling back and freeing his foot.

" Severe Leaf Hurricane!" Lee, who had been watching on the sidelines, hit Kimimaro in the neck when he saw the older teen stumble back. There was a loud snapping sound as Kimimaro was sent flying again, his neck twisted at an acute angle. Naruto felt small amounts of the nine-tails chakra flow to his foot slowly healing him as he looked at his green-clad comrade as he used the small respite to catch his breath.

"Good hit Lee" Lee let out a solemn nod.

"I do not like sneak attacks but I understand when such things are required of me." Naruto was about to respond saying that they needed to go after Sasuke when monstrous amounts of killing intent flared from Kimimaro's body. The two leaf ninjas jumped back as the white-haired teen slowly stood up and pushed his neck into the right position. Bone spikes extended from his back. Kimimaro's markings extended to cover his body, slowly the expanded as his skin turned darker and tail grew from his backside.

"To think, you would force me to use stage two of my curse mark." Kimimaro started to cough violently before he blurred from sight. Naruto's eyes darted around the clearing when he spotted a shadow over himself, the blond dove as Kimimaro landed as dozens of bone spikes sprouted from the teen who started spinning as he followed Naruto in an intricate dance of death.

'This guy is Insane!' Naruto began to dodge as best he could from the torrent of death that was Kimimaro He saw Lee standing back with a frustrated expression on his face unable to get close without being impaled himself. Naruto jumped away from the spinning sound ninja when he saw a bone extend from the white-haired teen's elbow and Naruto brought up his blackened arm to block. The bone managed to pierce through the blonds forearm and Kimimaro spun once again sending the blond flying. Naruto flipped and landed on his feet and began to channel an immense amount of chakra, moments later the clearing was filled with a hundred copies of the blond. Kimimaro narrowed his eyes as Naruto motioned Lee to jump back.

"This won't work." Kimimaro reached behind him to his back as he began to pull a long segmented bone.

"Is that his spine?" Lee said in shock as both Leaf ninjas looked on with mild disgust. Two clones charged but were instantly destroyed when Kimimaro swung his spine sword. More clones rushed and the result was the same as before. Kimimaro dance, spun, and wove around the army of clones destroying dozens in seconds. Naruto motioned to several of his clones to follow his lead as he began to go through hand seals.

"Water Style: Raging Waves!" Kimimaro was hit by three separate streams of water as two clones came from his left and right going through the same hand seals. "Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder!" Lightning tore the ground apart as it traveled along the water as the white-haired teen was unable to react in time, after 10 seconds Kimimaro was smoking when he suddenly spun, swinging his spine sword around as he cleaved countless clones and the tree's in half.

"You're annoying." Kimimaro put his hands on the ground "Dance of the Seedling Fern." All was quiet for a moment before thousands of large bone spikes erupted from the ground, Naruto and Lee jumped away as fast as they could trying to avoid the deadly technique. Naruto saw Lee falter, acting quickly the blond grabbed the arm of the green-clad genin and threw him away, because of his actions a bone spike managed to pierce the blond's side. Naruto grimaced and raised his blackened arm up just in time for Kimimaro's spine sword to wrap around it. The whiskered blond saw his opponent emerge from one of the bigger bone spikes with a drill like bone around his right arm. "This is your end." Naruto was then yanked forward by the white-haired monster.

'Shit!' The whiskered blond quickly used all the chakra he could and formed a Rasengan in his free hand, Kimimaro cocked his arm back before striking with his drill arm, fully intending on piercing through him. The Rasengan smashed into the bone drill as charka flew from the point of contact as the bone drill tried to destabilize the structure of the Rasengan. Naruto saw his jutsu beginning to deform when Lee came out of nowhere kicked Kimimaro's right arm away from the blond, this caused the Rasengan to fully destabilize and the blond quickly shoved the remains of his jutsu into the sound ninja's face just as it exploded. All three ninja were blasted away, Naruto grabbed his side as it began bleeding profusely. He once again felt the nine-tails chakra come up and start healing the wound, his arm was also bleeding badly from the explosion. Naruto looked at Lee and saw he was holding his left leg, the same leg he used to kick the bone away. Naruto grimaced as pain exploded from his own leg. He saw he had a bone spike impaling his left leg. The blond looked over at the sound ninja as he stood back up, his face was a bloody mess with parts of it being missing, blasted away from the explosion, he started to slowly walk over to the two downed Leaf ninja.

"I." Kimimaro began to cough violently. "Will make." Kimimaro then dashed at Naruto. "Lord Orochimaru proud!"

"Naruto!" Lee screamed out as the sound ninja dashed at the chuunin. Naruto quickly gathered the rest of his chakra and slammed his hands on the ground.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" The earth wall sprung up as Naruto continued to pump chakra into the wall trying to reinforce it as much as possible. Naruto saw the bone drill break through his wall and hit his chest Naruto was pushed back and saw the very tip of the drill had impacted the first Hokage's necklace right over his heart. Naruto Looked up and saw blood dripping from Kimimaro's mouth his chest no longer moving, he stood still and Naruto noticed he had died. The blond fell unto his back breathing heavily as he grabbed the necklace with both hands.

'That's twice now you've saved me.' Naruto slowly got up wincing as his many wounds making things uncomfortable.

"Naruto! I am glad you're alright." The chuunin made his way to the sitting genin.

"How's your leg, Lee?" Said ninja frowned.

"I am afraid it is broken. I heard my leg snap when I kicked away his most un-youthful jutsu." Naruto nodded as he reached into his ninja pouch and ate a soldier pill to help with his diminishing reserves. After a moment to allow the pill to take effect Naruto created two clones and had one of them pick up Lee and the other pick up Kimimaro.

"I'll have my clone help you get back to the village Lee." Lee looked like he wanted to argue but understood that he was out of options with his broken leg.

"Very well, but be careful my friend." The blond faced the green lad genin and gave him a firm nod

"I will." Naruto jumped away from Lee and his clones going the way he had seen Sakura go chasing after Sasuke. Naruto traveled for a good 15 minutes when he finally found his teammates in a clearing. Sasuke was standing in front of Sakura as he held her by the neck. Sakura had a large gash on her cheek and a busted lip, her eyes darted to the blond and Sasuke followed her gaze as he let out a sinister smile. He dropped Sakura as he turned to fully face the blond.

"I almost gave up on waiting for you, Naruto." Sasuke said as he gestured to their pink-haired teammate. "Sakura was helping me test out my new power but unfortunately she was only able to do so much. I'm glad I'll finally be able to test myself against you, Naruto!" The two glared at each other as they began to walk in a circle, eventually, Naruto was standing next to Sakura. He created a clone and had it pick her up to take her away.

"Wait! Naruto you have to help him, he's not himself." Naruto ignored Sakura as his clone took her away.

"What? Not going to listen to your dear Sakura?"

"No, my mission is to bring you back to the village so Sasuke I'm only going to ask once, come back to the village." Sasuke let out a sneer at the blond.

"Go back? GO BACK!? No, they've been holding me back!" Sasuke shouted at the blond "With Orochimaru's teachings I'll finally be able to kill Itachi!"

"You're a fool if you think Orochimaru is going to just give you power for free." Spat back the blond.

"I know that, and I don't care. I'd sell my soul to him if I get to achieve my ambition." Naruto jumped back as Sasuke ran at him. The two began a taijutsu exchange and Naruto ducked under a punch from Sasuke and knee'd him in the chest as a response. The raven-haired teen grabbed onto Naruto by his vest as he twisted and threw him out the clearing. The blond spun in mid-air and saw he was thrown off a cliff leading down to a river. Naruto landed on the water when Sasuke appeared above him, his hands in the tiger.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" Sasuke spat out six small fireballs from his mouth. Naruto ran through his own hand seals and cut the flow of chakra from his feet, his body weight making him descend into the water.

'Water Style: Raging waves!' Naruto unleashed his jutsu just as his head submerged propelling himself downward as the fireballs exploded on the surface of the river. Naruto made three clones and had them spread out as he saw Sasuke land above him, pushing chakra into his feet he shot up out of the water and upper-cut his raven-haired foe. Sasuke backflipped and had his Sharingan activated when he landed as his eyes darted below the water's surface. Sasuke jumped back as three jets of water collided where he had been standing on previously. Naruto seeing Sasuke was in the air ran at him and tried to punch him, Sasuke grabbed the outstretched fist and used it to maneuver himself so he could throw a kick at the blonds head. Naruto spun away avoiding the hit as he retaliated with a kick of his own that caught the genin in the face and sent Sasuke crashing into the cliff-side. Sasuke rubbed his chin as the flame like markings began to cover his entire body.

"This is good, Sakura was useless, now I can test myself before heading to Orochimaru, let's go! Naruto!" Sasuke rushed the whiskered blond who was on the defensive, his old teammate attacked with vigor and the blond couldn't find an opening to attack. Thinking quickly Naruto blasted chakra from the bottom of his foot creating a small geyser, the blond used the opening to land a punch to Sasuke's chest before he was hit by a kick to the stomach. The two jumped away from each other as Sasuke threw out several shurikens, Naruto stepped back as he created three clones. Using the smokescreen Naruto pulled out his own shuriken and threw them at Sasuke as he ran through hand signs.

"Ninja Arts: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto's clones batted away the shuriken Sasuke threw as dozens of Naruto's own shuriken burst out of the smoke. Sasuke jumped up to the cliff-side to avid the shuriken when he started going through some familiar seals as he took a deep breath.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" Sasuke unleashed a massive fireball at the blond and his clones.

'That's a big fireball.' Naruto quickly went through the same hand seals as his clones started going through a different set. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" Naruto spat out his own slightly smaller fireball as his clones finished their jutsu. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" The Wind jutsus powered Naruto's fire increasing its size and intensity, the two fireballs clashed and were in a stalemate for a second before Naruto's fireball began to push Sasuke's back. The Raven-haired teen's eyes widened when he noticed his jutsu was losing ground fast, acting quickly he descended down the cliff-side as he felt the heat of the blonds flame above him making him feel uncomfortable at how close the heat felt. Sasuke then threw more shuriken that circled around Naruto and his clones. Naruto's eyes widened when he and his clones were pulled together as steel wire closed around him, his clones were dispelled and Sasuke spun the blond around and smashed him onto the shore. Naruto saw Sasuke put the wire into his mouth as his hands flashed with an unfamiliar jutsu, the blond saw the tiger seal and began going through his only water jutsu thanking whatever deity that was listening that his hands were free to use his jutsu.

"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" Sasuke's fire jutsu followed the wire and Naruto could feel the heat already stinging his face. Naruto finished his Jutsu as the flame was three-fourths of the way to him.

"Water Style: Raging Waves!" Naruto started pumping liberal amounts of chakra even as he felt his reserves starting to deplete after so many chakra intensive battles the last two days. The two jutsu created a thick steam that covered the area. Naruto created a single clone and substituted with it as he hid himself in the mist. Naruto could hear a sound he had heard only once before back in Wave country.

Naruto saw Sasuke walk up to his hand encased in lighting as he let loose low chuckle. "At least Kakashi managed to teach me one useful thing. Goodbye, Naruto." Sasuke shoved his lightning covered fist through the blond who let out a silent scream before dispelling. Sasuke's eyes went wide when he saw it was a clone, Naruto seeing his chance, channeled earth chakra into his arm as he came out of the mist and delivered a devastating right hook that sent Sasuke tumbling alongside the river bank before he hit a large boulder. Sasuke got up slowly his eyes burning with anger. When very slowly the two tomoe in the Uchiha's eyes became three.

"Naruto," Sasuke growled out as he ran at the blond, Naruto saw the world shift and everything came back into focus when he was knocked back by Sasuke's fist.

'Genjutsu!' Naruto saw Sasuke rush him again, he once again threw a punch this time Naruto blocked with his forearm, Sasuke reacted by grabbing his arm and pulling the blond forward. While Naruto was off-balance Sasuke struck the chuunin with a knee to the ribs. Naruto felt his ribs fully break, as they had never fully healed from his fight with Kazuma. Sasuke vanished from Naruto's sight as and he was suddenly sent skyward. Naruto felt Sasuke appear behind him as he channeled earth chakra into his leg as he spun avoiding Sasuke's punch and kicking the raven-haired teen in the chest sending him crashing into the water below. Naruto landed and body-flickered to Sasuke who was getting back on top of the river. Naruto quickly created two clones, the first clone kicked Sasuke into the air as the second clone started going through hand seals. Naruto himself jumped off the first clone's back and he grabbed Sasuke by the ankle before throwing him back into the depths, the clone then put his hands on the surface of the water and released his jutsu. "Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder!" The lighting surged as Sasuke let out a scream underwater. Naruto landed as his clones dispersed breathing heavily, feeling the stress of the last couple of days starting to catch up as he felt the last of his reserves run dry. Naruto felt Sasuke's killing intent moments before he was grabbed by the neck and slammed into the cliff-side by the enraged Uchiha. Naruto felt his vision go blurry as he stared at his teammate, his skin had darkened to a grayish hue, his lips were now a dark blue and he had two hand looking wings sprouting from his back.

"How are you so strong!" Sasuke pulled the blond back and slammed him back into the cliff, sending hair-line cracks across the cliff wall. Naruto saw Sasuke's Sharingan eye start to spin and he felt his chakra being disturbed as Sasuke tried to place Naruto into a genjutsu. Naruto was fighting it as best he could when he heard the deep booming voice of the nine-tails reverberate in his head.

"**You will not fall to an Uchiha.**" The nine-tails chakra surged and the genjutsu was violently broken, Naruto felt the chakra coarse threw his system revitalizing punched Sasuke away. The traitorous genin used his wings to stabilize himself mid-air, Naruto launched himself at Sasuke as a shroud of chakra bubbled to life around him taking the vague shape of a fox. Sasuke wrapped his wings around himself when Naruto brought down a massive chakra claw down that sent Sasuke into the water once more. Naruto created five clones as he landed on the water's surface as Sasuke recovered from being hit again.

"What the hell are you, Naruto!" The whiskered blond didn't say anything as he began to form a Rasengan in his right hand. Sasuke seeing this began to channel lightning chakra into his left hand as the sound of thousands of birds chirping could be heard. The two locked gazes before taking off at the same time, just as the two were about to clash Naruto shoved his Rasengan into the water and destabilized it causing an explosion that sent Sasuke along with a tremendous amount of water into the air. Sasuke tried to stabilize himself again only to be hit by a wind jutsu from one of the blonds clones. Sasuke was sent slamming onto the river shore, the raven-haired teen didn't get a chance to get back up when two more of the blonds clones kicked Sasuke back into the air where the final two clones fell onto him hitting him with their own jutsus.

"Rasengan!" The dual shouts rang out as Sasuke rocketed back to the river shore causing a crater, Naruto walked to where his teammate had landed and saw two spiral marks that dug into his teammates back as his skin coloring slowly went back to normal. A clone of Naruto went up and confirmed that Sasuke was knocked out as Naruto let out a sigh of relief, the nine-tails chakra receded and Naruto stumbled as exhaustion hit him like a sledgehammer. Naruto tied Sasuke up and slung him over his shoulder as he started making his way back to the village, the trek was slow going as the blond was running on fumes by this point, the days of constant battle and travel with no rest was too much even for his grotesque stamina. The sky was darkening and Naruto felt the first drops of rain begin to fall. Naruto could see the bone spikes the sound ninja Kimimaro had made when his instinct's flared, he dropped his captive and was about to turn around when he was hit in the back of the head. The blow sent him to the ground as he heard the voice of someone he was quickly starting to hate.

"Now, now Naruto. I can't have you interfering any longer. Lord Orochimaru won't be happy if you take Sasuke back to the Leaf." Naruto sat up shakily as he watched Kabuto pick Sasuke up, The rain was starting to pour now and Kabuto adjusted his glasses with his free-hand.

"Kabuto," Orochimaru's right-hand man smiled as he jumped up into the tree's.

"I must be going, but I will leave you with a gift." Kabuto threw a kunai in front of Naruto. "To da lu." Naruto heard sizzling as his vision shot down to see an explosive tag attached to the kunai. Naruto used the very last of his energy as he tried to body-flicker away, Naruto felt the explosion hit his back and he threw a kunai to the back of Kabuto's head. Unfortunately, his aim was off and he missed Kabuto, there was a silver lining, he had managed to hit one of Sasuke's eyes. Naruto collided with a tree as he felt his vision blurring, his consciousness started to fade as he used every ounce of his will power to stay awake.

'Damn it.' Just as Naruto passed out because of his injuries he was a small pug in Leaf ninja attire land next to him with the sound of clashing steel sending him off to a dreamless sleep.

A/N: First off Sorry for the wait, a combination of being busy with adult life and Total war Warhammer has eaten my free time. I hope you enjoyed the chapter I spent the last two days editing it since I knew it had been a while since I uploaded and I finally just said to my self. Just do it. I'll see you guys in the next chapter.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Repercussions**

White.

It was the first thing Naruto saw when he woke up, the blond had rarely been in the hospital because of his amazing healing factor growing up but he would never forget how the rooms smelled. The blond noticed he his right arm was lightly wrapped in bandages along with his head. He looked outside and saw the moon was shining brightly in the night sky, The blond slowly got out of bed feeling his body protest slightly, his varies injuries aching. Naruto grimaced not used to feeling so hurt, slowly he made his way to the closed window. The chuunin stared at the village and he saw the last of the stragglers headed home for the night, only the occasional ninja would pass by this part of the village at this time of night. Naruto opened the window and sat on the ledge as his eyes closed. There was a soft breeze that came by and ruffled his hair and brought fresh air into the stale hospital room. He glanced at the clock hanging above the door and the blond saw it was one in the morning. Naruto looked around his room and saw a nightstand with a lamp on the right side of the bed. Closer to the door were two chairs, the one closer to the door had his clothes neatly folded along with a scroll that no doubt held all of his supplies. There was a door in-front of bed that no doubt led into a bathroom. Naruto slowly made his way to the chair near the door as he examined his clothing, his shirt was a mess as it was littered with holes and tears from his back-to-back battles. The rest of his clothing was in no better shape the blond then began to change into his regular clothing sans his flank jacket which was no doubt in the scroll.

'Damn it.' Naruto grit his teeth as his thoughts went back to his final waking moments after capturing Sasuke. His hands clenched into fists as he could feel his frustration mounting, after his fight with Kazuma and a 6-hour dash to find the retrieval team the blond had been tired. The fight against Kimimaro had left him exhausted, and his fight with Sasuke had left him running on fumes as even his tremendous chakra reserves had been pushed to the very limit. The blond sneaked out his room and saw the hallway was mostly empty, he eventually found the nurses' station where three nurses were going in and out of rooms checking on various patients. The blond waited and soon all the nurses left to check on patients and to deal with other duties, Naruto went over and started to look through patients and eventually found the names of all his injured comrades. Neji and Choji were still undergoing surgery it seemed. Kiba was resting as in room 302 and Sakura was in room 309, both would be kept overnight before being released. Shikamaru and Ten-Ten had been discharged after getting their injuries treated as they had no major injuries. 'At least everyone made it out alive.' Naruto thought as relief surged through his tired mind, he set the charts down as he started making his way to the exit after avoiding the nurses doing their rounds.

The wind hit the blond once again as he stepped outside, the roads being illuminated by the moon, Naruto started walking towards one of his favorite spots in the village. The trip took him a good half-hour as the blond walked at a leisure pace just enjoying the night air, it was a very different from the stale air of the hospital. Naruto slowly sat down on top of the Fourths head looking out into the village. The blonds hand rose to his stomach as thoughts drifted to his father. 'Kazuma knew who my father was the moment I used the Rasengan if he could figure it out others are sure to find out as well.' Naruto closed his eyes as he laid down when he felt another person sit next to him. He opened his eyes to see Jiraiya staring out into the village.

"Tsunade is going to kick your ass when she notices you left the hospital kid." The whiskered blond shrugged.

"I don't like staying in the hospital." Jiraiya let out a soft chuckle.

"Yeah, well be prepared to get pummeled next time you see her." Naruto let out a sigh wondering why the sannin were all so weird. He clenched his fists as he thought about Orochimaru and his own wayward teammate. "I heard about Sasuke." Jiraiya looked at his student as various emotions began cycling through his eyes.

"I had him, I was on my way back to the village when Kabuto showed up. I was already drained from all of my previous fights and I couldn't do anything when he blindsided me." The white-haired man put his hand on the blond's shoulder.

"Sometimes these things happen on missions, we weren't expecting for all of you to meet such heavy resistance. You probably saved the Akamichi's and the Hyuga's lives, both of them were in critical condition and the rest of the retrieval team suffered minor damages. You did a good job, Guy's pupil Lee told us how you fought Kimimaro. He was one of Orochimaru's best agents." Naruto grabbed the First Hokage's crystal with his left hand.

"He was a monster, he completely outclassed Lee and I. We didn't even defeat him, he died on his own in the middle of the fight. Lee and I." Naruto paused as the grip on the necklace increased. "we would have died otherwise, we got lucky"

"But you survived, that's all that matters sometimes in this world." Naruto frowned but didn't say anything as the two sat on top of the Fourth's head.

"What's going to happen to Sasuke."

"I wasn't in the council meeting when it happened but from what I heard he will be officially be declared a missing ninja. He'll have a bounty put on his head, Alive only. There was a lot of debate on whether or not to mark him as a rogue and instead of marking him as kidnapped but the parents of the clan heirs that went on the mission especially the Akamichi and Hyuga clan heads put their foot down." Naruto sighed to himself as images of the darkened, winged form Sasuke had taken during their fight.

"What's going to happen to the Sound village. Now that they have Sasuke council will want to get him back right?"

"Normally we would have sent a team to go retrieve him, unfortunately, things are starting to escalate with the Stone village." Naruto felt his stomach drop at Jiraiya's serious face. "This actually brings me to the main thing I wanted to talk to you about. I was planning on taking you on a training trip so you could handle the Akatsuki when they come for you. Good news is you have three years to prepare, the bad news is that the training trip likely won't happen. Things are heading towards war, and I'm currently the only S-rank ninja in the village aside from Tsunade." Jiraiya had a sad look on his face. "And you being the container of the nine-tails means we will both need to be on the front lines." Naruto closed his eyes tightly his grip on the crystal tightening, his knuckles going white from the pressure.

"I'll be ready if they need me." Jiraiya sighed.

"Nothing is certain yet but you need to prepare yourself mentally if war does break-out. You're on leave for the next two weeks so we'll be using the opportunity to help you polish up your techniques, we also need to work on your speed." Naruto nodded and Jiraiya stood up. "Training starts in two days at 7 so use the next two days to heal up." The toad sage jumped to the Third's head. "You should talk to Kakashi Naruto, he was the one who found you and brought you back to the village. Don't stay here all night." Naruto watched as Jiraiya left in a body flicker and began to stand up himself and he slowly started making his way to his apartment.

Naruto enjoyed waking up and just staying in bed, it was a habit he tried to avoid making but on rare days where he had nothing planned he allowed himself to just bask in the comfort of being wrapped up by his blanket, or he would have, if it weren't for the loud knocking coming from his door. With a weary sigh, Naruto got up from under his blanket wearing nothing but his pajama pants and his sleeping cap. Naruto rubbed his eyes as he opened the front door to find an irate Ino with a hand on her hip.

'Nope, I'm too tired to deal with this.' Naruto closed the door and turned around to go back to his bed when he heard Ino explode from the other side of the door.

"NARUTO YOU BETTER OPEN THIS DAMN DOOR RIGHT NOW!" Said blond let out a tired sigh, resigned to the fact he was getting no more sleep this morning. The blond made a single shadow clone as he stepped into his kitchen while his clone went to let Ino inside. Grabbing a pot and filling it water Naruto prepared two cups to make tea, while he grabbed the cups he received the memories of his clone being slapped out of existence. Naruto poured the hot water into the cups as Ino came into the kitchen area and sat in his chair with a huff. "You know, it's rude to shut the door on your guests." Naruto set the teacup in front of Ino before making his way over to the free seat.

"Ino, it's 7 in the morning." The blond gestured to the clock on the wall, Ino's face was deadpan as she looked at the clock.

"It's 10:30" The blond looked at the clock and confirmed it was indeed 10:30. "More importantly why aren't you at the hospital? I went to check on all of you this morning and after I found out that you were all back from your retrieval mission only to find out you had snuck out!" Naruto took a sip from his drink trying to prolong having to answer, knowing that his answer of 'I just don't like hospitals' wouldn't cut it. Naruto contemplated his answer as he slowly lowered his teacup to the table.

"I saw a black cat in my room so I had to walk around the village 7 times to get rid of the bad luck." Naruto looked at as a bewildered expression came to her face, his own face was stoic but on the inside, he was hitting himself for using such a stupid excuse.

"so, you left the hospital because you saw a black cat." Ino stared at Naruto who took a sip from his empty cup as he nodded.

"That's right"

"And then you had to walk around the village _seven times_."

"Yup."

"Even though you were injured enough to be hospitalized." Ino was full-on glaring at the blond by now.

"It sounds bad when you say it like that." Ino rubbed the bridge of her nose as she let out an irritated sigh.

"You're an idiot." Naruto shrugged, he had been called much worse for less. "How are you feeling? Does anything hurt?" Ino scanned the blond but the only thing she saw was another scar running across his chest, she let out a frown as and Naruto noticed her gaze.

"I didn't get that during the last mission." Ino blushed, a bit embarrassed she had been caught staring.

"When did you get it?" Naruto huffed as he thought about the mission to get Tsunade and how it had been him getting his ass beat by three different S-rank ninjas.

"Jiraiya brought me along with him on his mission to go find Tsunade. We had an encounter with Orochimaru and well." The blond gestured to the scar Ino had never seen. "After that Jiraiya and Tsunade drove him off and we came back to the village." Ino nodded along while she listened to the short retelling of his experience. Ino let out a snort as Naruto narrowed his eyes at her. "What's so funny."

"You have the worst luck on missions, Sakura told me how you guys ended up running into Zabuza during your first C-rank and you ran into Kazuma during our mission too." Naruto thought about it and realized she was right as his eyes widened.

'Every time I go out of the village I get attacked by a rogue ninja.' His shoulders slumped thinking about how unlucky he was. Ino let out a giggle seeing the blond react to his sudden epiphany. The blond got out of his funk as fast, in the end, it didn't matter how many times he got attacked he would kick all their asses. "How is did Choji's surgery go?" Naruto's sudden question brought a somber mood over the two blonds.

"He's going to be fine, he's gonna be stuck in the hospital for the next week so they can monitor him just in case though. You saved his life you know." Ino stared directly into the blonds blue eyes, Naruto looked away unable to hold her gaze.

"I'm just glad my clone made it in time." The two blonds sat in silence when a knock was heard from the front door. Ino looked at Naruto and his state of dress.

"Go get dressed I'll answer the door." Naruto nodded as he looked at himself, he had hoped Ino would leave after confirming he was fine, as much as he enjoyed her company the blond was hoping to have a lazy day in.

'Goodbye sleep.' Naruto thought as he made his way to his room as Ino got up and went to the front door. Naruto looked over his wardrobe and decided to wear a simple orange T-shirt and black shorts as Naruto began to undress he had another realization. 'Shit, if whoever is out there wants to come inside and talk I'll be out of chairs.' Naruto began to dress himself and he heard two voices in the living room. 'I should probably go buy more chairs eventually.' The blond finished dressing and opened the door to find Ino heating the water as Sakura sat in his chair. She looked very tired with heavy bags under her eyes.

"Hey Naruto, you weren't at the hospital this morning." The whiskered blond made his way over to the empty seat.

"How are you feeling Sakura?" Naruto said completely avoiding the question about his whereabouts. The pink-haired kunoichi sniffled as Ino brought her the steaming tea.

"I'm a little soar but the medics patched me up and got rid of all the bruising." Sakura grabbed her cup with both hands and her knuckles turned white from how tight her grip was. "I also feel so useless." Ino began to rub Sakura's back.

"Hey now, don't get down, That mission should have gone to a group of chuunin, not genin. You guys did what you could." Ino's words caused Sakura to let out another sniffle.

"I know, but I wish I could have helped more, Sasuke was just toying with me and that white-haired sound ninja would have killed me if Lee hadn't shown up"

"That man was a monster Sakura. Lee and I could barely keep up with him." The two girls looked over at Naruto who was resting his head on his right hand.

"Then how did you win?" asked Sakura.

"We didn't." Came the blonds blunt reply. "We survived long enough for him to die on his own." Sakura looked down at her cup.

"What happened to Sasuke after you rescued me?" The blond let out a long sigh as his expression darkened thinking about what happened.

"I managed to capture Sasuke and was on my way back when Kabuto snuck up on me and landed a sneak attack. After that, he took Sasuke and left." Sakura didn't say anything after that when she noticed the blonds mood soured. The trio stood in an awkward silence that was only broken when the blond stood up. "Well, I'm hungry. I'm going to go find a place to eat." Ino and Sakura followed the blond and the three began heading for the village center. As the trio was walking Naruto spotted a certain orange book on sale and was reminded of Jiraiya's words from last night. 'I should really go thank him.' The platinum blond spoke up after ten minutes of walking.

"Hey, we should go to this BBQ place Asuma-sensei always takes us." Sakura titled her head to the side before nodding.

"Yeah, I could go for some barbeque right now. How about you Naruto?" The pink-haired woman turned to her blond teammate.

"Yeah, that's fine. I'll meet you guys there I just remembered I needed to do something." with that said the blond immediately body flickered away startling the two kunoichis. The blond reappeared near training ground 7moments later. In the distance, he could see the memorial stone and its most frequent visitor. The blond walked to stand next to the masked jonin.

"I'm glad to see you had no major injuries."

"I was lucky that the worst I had was chakra exhaustion. My chest is still sore but that will go away soon enough." The two Leaf ninjas stood in silence as the wind picked up rustling the nearby trees.

"I'm sorry Naruto." The blond glanced at his sensei from the corner of his eye. "I should have been a better sensei to you and Sakura." Kakashi let out a humorless chuckle. "The one student I did focus on ends up betraying the village." Naruto sighed internally, Kakashi had been a terrible sensei but he hadn't done it out of spite or hate if anything he wanted to get rid of Sasuke first so he could concentrate on himself and Sakura.

"It's not your fault he left sensei. Sasuke had a lot more problems than what you were equipped to deal with, and honestly, you can only do so much for someone if they don't want to change." Kakashi nodded slowly.

"Jiraiya told me you two would be training these next two weeks."

"That's right, we're going to be working on my physical conditioning and polishing what I know."

"If you want, I could stop by and help."

"Only if you stop by to help Sakura train too." Kakashi eye smiled at the blond.

"I was already planning on it, don't worry Naruto. I won't make the same mistake again." Naruto looked away from his sensei and scanned the memorial stone seeing all the names carved onto it.

'There's probably going to be more names add soon if things with Stone continue to deteriorate.' The two Leaf ninja fell into a comfortable silence.

The week had been going well for the whiskered blond. Both Jiraiya and Kakashi had driven the blond into the ground with training, Jiraiya would make him do multiple exercises only to randomly attack him and begin a spar so he could work on his instincts. Kakashi had been working with the blonds clones, each day he would work on a single jutsu trying to lower the number of hand seals required to cast them along with helping the blond switch between the different chakra natures. Naruto was currently laying in his bed his body sore and beaten, Jiraiya it seems, does not like to hold back during spars. The blond was beginning to doze off when he heard the cry of a hawk. Naruto looked at the bird flying high above the village in a figure eight, and new it was a message for all chuunin ranked and above ninja to gather on top of the Hokage monument. All chuunin receive a scroll with their flank jacket that explained all necessary information, such as evacuation routes, outpost locations, and a list of messenger hawk flight patterns. Naruto got dressed in his gear and as he noticed the countless figures moving in the shadows, all of them headed in the same direction. The whiskered blond was soon standing next to hundreds of other Leaf ninjas all gathered around Shikaku Nara. Naruto saw that the Jonin had all gathered as well and that they were standing behind Shikaku who dropped down to one knee. All the gathered ninjas followed suit as Tsunade walked to stand in front of her assembled forces an un-readable expression marring her face. Jiraiya, who was walking behind Tsunade, had a grim expression. The mood was tense as everyone waited for the Hokage to speak.

"The Stone village has declared war on us." There was absolute silence after the declaration, no one dared to speak, not a single person even dared to breathe. "Earlier today a squadron of sound ninjas attacked one of our ANBU bases near the border of Waterfall." The tension rose several notches as anger spiked across the crowd. "We have reinforced border patrol with regular forces already but I need every single person to go home and prepare yourselves. Tonight the council and the Elite jonin will be making plans on how to proceed but we will be establishing several outposts closer to the border for rapid response. This is a serious matter, there will no doubt be many clashes but we will stand tall and Stone will regret messing with us. Dismissed." Naruto saw many of his comrades leave with grim faces and as he walked back to his apartment he thought back to the memorial stone and dreaded too see how many new names would be added to it during the duration of this conflict.

A/N Ok, so this is progressing nicely. I have plans on how I want to play this next arc cause I didn't want to have the two year time skip with Jiraiya and Naruto running around the elemental nations doing jack all. and as they say. experience is the best teacher, at least it will be for Naruto.

I'm not gonna lie I had a scene in my mind for a while now and it's just so ridiculous I had to put it in.

Omake: **Naruto's World**

Kabuto had been watching the fight between Naruto and Sasuke closely, Naruto had just taken Sasuke out by slamming his Rasengan into the river and delivering a devastating combo that had knocked the avenger out. But something was, off. During the fight, Kabuto saw inconsistencies, punches that should have hit the blond only for him to be just out of reach, kunai that just appeared out of nowhere in the blond's hands. The young medic watched as the blond picked up the knocked out Uchiha and began walking away, Kabuto began to follow the blond, honestly, he hadn't expected to be needed, the fact that Kimimaro failed surprised the silver-haired teen greatly. Kabuto took a position above the two teens slowly gathering chakra into his hand and without warning, he sprinted at the blond. Kabuto neared his prey and swung, his hand going to his neck in an attempt to sever his spinal cord, but just as his hand made contact both teens vanished from sight.

'What the hell!' Thought Kabuto as he quickly looked around trying to find his targets, he quickly found them off in the distance with Naruto placing Sasuke next to a tree. His back was to the medic and as he turned to face the Sound ninja Kabuto froze the moment red eyes locked with his own. 'W-what is this?' Kabuto started shaking as dread filled his being. The medic had been used to being blasted with potent killing intent, something that was unavoidable working with Orochimaru, but this was completely different. This was some primal feeling of being in front of a superior predator. Kabuto took in the appearance of Naruto who looked different from the last time he saw him. His hair was slicked back with four spikes coming forward, he looked slightly more filled out, and his eyes. They were the eyes of an apex predator.

"Kabuto" His voice was smooth and sensual, it didn't sound anything like the boy he knew. Swallowing any and all apprehension the medic knew he couldn't return to Orochimaru without Sasuke so he acted. Using a body flicker Kabuto rushed the blond intending to slice his throat. Kabuto was alarmed, the blond clearly tracked his movements but didn't move to retaliate, he only smiled, revealing sharper than normal canines. Before Kabuto could land the blow he was sent hurtling through several trees. He shakily got up and moved forward to trying to figure out when the blond had moved. Whatever happened to the blond to change him had put him in a class of his own, he didn't even know if Orochimaru could defeat the blond as he was.

"Oh? You continue to approach me even after realizing how outclassed you are."

"L-lord Orochimaru re-requires young Sasuke." Kabuto cursed himself for stuttering. The blond let out a small chuckle to a full laugh.

"Very well, then do try to take him." Naruto had an ear to ear grin as he stared down the medic. Kabuto was overcome by pure terror and he turned around to try and flee only to end up in the same spot where he started

"What!? HOW!?" Laughter once more filled the clearing as Naruto spread his arms out.

"This has been fun Kabuto but it seems like we need to end this, company shall be arriving soon and I am not ready to reveal myself yet." Kabuto turned around again to try and flee he made took two steps before he heard the blond speak again.

"**ZA WARUDO**" Kabuto felt himself fall to the ground only his body had remained where it was. As the darkness started consuming him he saw the red-eyed blond laugh as he consumed the blood from his headless body.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N:** Usually leave these for the end but I had to put a warning first. I hate this chapter. It is by far the worst thing that I have written and I've been working on this damn thing for two months, It wasn't even that the chapter was long I just kept getting stuck and it was frustrating, Eventually I decided "ok this is as good as it's gonna get or this will never get published" on the bright side I plan to update in a couple of days to wash down the bitter taste this chapter left. Anyway, I've rambled enough, on to the chapter.

**Chapter 14: Outpost Alpha**

One month had passed since Tsunade had delivered the news of the Stone villages attack, the Leaf village had taken immediate action and established three bases of operations on its western borders. Outpost Alpha was one of three bases made at the border of Fire country and its three neighbors; Waterfall, Grass, and Sound. Outpost Alpha was set up near Grass country and all of the major supply lines coming east ran through it. Outpost Alpha was the least active of the three bases in direct combat. Outpost Beta was technically in Waterfall and was set up as a joint outpost with the Waterfall ninja to help secure their country. Outpost Delta was the last of the three outposts and also the largest of the three. It was set up near the border of Sound and had already engaged enemy squadrons three separate times in large scale battles. Waterfall had sided with the Leaf village as they had an ongoing defensive pact, Sound and Stone had allied together as well allowing the Squadrons of Stone ninjas to directly attack the Fire country without having to go through the hostile Waterfall village or the neutral Grass country. The Sand village had been silent, though they did claim neutrality from the whole affair, still reeling from their loses during the Sand-Sound invasion. The Cloud village had only increased some of its patrols and made no other moves, though relations were tense. The hidden Mist village was still dark, what little information they could get out was about the civil war starting to reach its climax. The other minor villages followed the Sand village's example and declared neutrality.

It had been three weeks since Naruto had been deployed to outpost Alpha. So far the blond chuunin had been sent out on two escort missions, where he and a squad of ten chuunins guarded a caravan of supplies coming from Wind country. So far things had been quiet, the only enemy activity had been a scout near the border. Jiraiya had been put in charge as commander of Outpost Delta, he was deployed there along with many of the Leafs heavy hitters, as it was currently the most active area in terms of combat. Kakashi had been made commander of outpost Beta, where he ran hit and run operations to disrupt the supply lines of the Stone village along with doing recon of Stone village outposts. They had conducted two raids so far. Inoichi Yamanaka, Ino's father, had been made commander of Outpost Alpha. He was also currently one of three Jonin who were assigned to the Outpost.

Naruto walked around camp taking in the scenery, there was a large number of tents set up as makeshift shelters. Large walls of earth were made with earth jutsus to protect the outpost and hide it from view. There were dozens of chuunin running around blending with one another as every single one was wearing their mandated attire. The blond was wearing the typical chuunin uniform plus his orange sash, it was the most he was allowed to deviate from the dress code now that wartime protocols were put into effect.

Naruto had spent most of his free time at camp working on his nature chakra transformation, he had been channeling different chakra types into his kunai to see the effects they had. Earth chakra was the one he was most familiar with, as it was the one he had the most experience with when he channeled it into his arms, it made the kunai harder and heavier than normal. Naruto knew the earth chakra enhancement would work better with blunt weapons, like a staff or club. Wind was his most powerful affinity and it was obvious when he began using the wind infused kunai, it could cut stone easily along with increasing penetrating power. The blond had tried to channel fire chakra through his kunai just once, he had burned himself, his control with fire was still not good enough for anything other than basic fire jutsu. Water in his opinion, was the hardest to control, he could extend the water in a whip from the tip of his kunai. Unfortunately, it required tremendous amounts of concentration and made it basically useless in battle for him. Lighting had a similar effect to that of wind, it made cutting easier but not to the extent that wind had. Where it had truly shined was its penetrating power, it could go through solid stone like it was made of butter. Although he had encountered a problem that was similar to the one he had with water, it took him about four seconds to properly channel the chakra through the kunai. That was unacceptable. A battle could be decided in that amount of time, especially with enemies like Orochimaru, Itachi, and Kisame, who could all move and react at ridiculous speeds.

As Naruto continued to walk around the base he saw that many of his allies were in the large communal tent that was mainly used for meals. The majority were playing card games and just talking. The blond let out a small as sigh his gaze lingered on all of his laughing allies. Naruto was the youngest person in camp by far, the closest person in age to him from what he could determine was a Hyuga that was 3 years older than him. Naruto had tried talking to him, but it was like talking to a brick wall, a brick wall that had a tendency to glare at you.

'The Hyuga really need to learn to relax.' Thought Naruto with a sigh as he walked past the communal tent and went to his assigned tent. Naruto shared the small space with five other chuunins, all of them in their late twenties. It was very awkward for the blond, some of them held hidden resentment when they looked at him. Be it from jealousy from him being a chuunin at such a young age or the fact that they knew he housed the nine-tails, either way, it made it a very uncomfortable experience for the young blond. If there was one thing he regretted about being promoted, it was the age difference with him and the rest of his comrades, the average age of most chuunin was 22, it was a difference of almost 10 years. It wasn't unheard of to be promoted at an early age, his own jonin sensei was proof of that, but most stayed with their genin teams until all three either got promoted or the remaining genins retired. Things were more complicated for him now that one of his teammates had gone rogue, not that he had planned on staying with them, but the breakout of war threw everything out of order, even if he had planned on staying with his team that option was now closed. The thought of the war reminded the whiskered blond of his lifelong tag-along. He had been very upset since the war was announced, not that Naruto could blame him, he wasn't thrilled with the prospect of two of the five fighting. He had tried to talk to the fox on multiple occasions since he had been deployed but the most he ever got was an angry huff or an annoyed growl. If Naruto didn't know any better he would say the ancient beast was sulking. The blond closed his eyes as he drifted off to sleep wondering when the nine-tails would talk to him again.

The next morning Naruto woke up and went to one of the three designated training areas right outside the walls of the outpost. Everyone was expected to train to keep themselves in shape but no intensive training was allowed, you never knew when you would be called away on an emergency mission. Naruto had a major advantage compared to everyone else, he could train harder than everyone at the outpost and not be negatively affected because of his healing factor. The young chuunin was using training weights he had acquired from Guy-sensei before being deployed as he ran around the field for his warm-up. The weights were special as they would increase in weight up to a certain limit whenever he added chakra to them. They were great as he could deactivate them in relatively fast in case of an attack, though he never wore them outside of training. There was no reason to take additional risks, especially during a war. Sweat dripped off the blond as he ran laps around the clearing, Naruto stopped and to catch his breath before sitting down to begin his meditation. It was his usual routine during his days off at the base, he would get up run laps then meditate for an hour before practicing his taijutsu, he would end his training session by working on his nature chakra. He was interrupted from his meditation when he felt someone walking towards him, Naruto opened his eyes as a black-haired chuunin stood in front of him. He looked to be in his early thirties and had a scar under his jaw. He looked slightly annoyed and his tone showed as much.

"Uzumaki, you've been called by the commander." As soon as he finished talking the man left. Naruto let out a sigh as he got up. It was hard to not get angry with some of his comrades when they acted like that, unfortunately, there was nothing he could do as being unpleasant wasn't a crime. It was frustrating though, very, very, frustrating.

After a short walk, Naruto stood in front of Inoichi with a group of 12 other chuunins. The older blond was going over paperwork in the commander's tent, his face was set into a small grimace that pronounced his wrinkles. He continued reading the report for another minute before finally addressing the gathered ninjas.

"Hello gentlemen, I've called you here because we received some troubling intel from outpost Beta this morning. One of their scout teams picked up the trail of an enemy squad during one of their patrols. After locating the squad of Stone ninja they followed them up to the point where they crossed into Grass country. From the direction they were traveling we think they will attack our supply caravan currently crossing through Grass country. The team deployed to escort that caravan has only 3 members. It was decided after some careful planning that all of you shall meet up with the caravan. Your mission is to make sure the supplies cross into Fire country, your second objective is to ambush the stone squadron should they try to attack the caravan and try to take at least one of them hostage. You have thirty minutes to prepare yourselves, the faster you make it to the caravan the better, supplies have been rather limited especially with how suddenly the war sprung up." The teal-colored eyes of the jonin fell onto the chuunin standing off to the right, he had black hair with grey eyes with a scar running along his jawline, it was the same chuunin that had come to retrieve Naruto "Chuunin Honda, you shall be in charge of this operation." The now named Honda saluted Inoichi.

"Of course commander, we won't let you down." Inoichi nodded.

"I know you won't, good luck all of you. Dismissed." Naruto and the remaining chuunins saluted Inoichi and left to go to their respective tents to prepare. Naruto had everything prepared already thanks to his various sealing scrolls so he sat in his bed and began to meditate, he had taken up the habit again as a way to center himself. The last three weeks had been a grind and the blond had no good outlet for his stress. The half-hour passed quickly and the blond made his way to the meeting spot. Naruto met the rest of his group consisting of 5 kunoichis and 7 ninjas, there wasn't anyone Naruto could recognize though one or two seemed familiar to the blond.

Honda cleared his throat and all the gathered chuunin gathered around their team leader. "Listen up, this mission isn't going to be easy but we can send a message to the Stone village that we won't be outmaneuvered by them. It'll take us a good part of the day to reach our destination, well be camping about a half a mile away from the main caravan so we won't be lighting any fires during the night." Naruto saw that plenty of his fellow chuunins looked agitated by the announcement though none dared to voice their displeasure. "Once we reach the caravan we need to be on alert, the Stone ninja may strike at any moment." Honda's gaze traveled across the group, Naruto noticed it stayed on him a split second longer than anyone else. "Let's get going."

With a chorus of 'Yes Sir' The team was off.

The journey was slow. Chuunin Honda decided that they needed to be in perfect shape if they encountered the Stone squadron so they moved at a leisure pace. The sun was high in the sky when Honda decided to take a short break for food and water, Naruto sat on a low hanging branch when he felt the all too familiar tug on his navel. He closed his eyes and when he opened them again he was standing in front of his tenant. The nine-tails looked down at his container, his massive tails swayed back and forth behind him. There was a tense silence as the two stared at each other, Naruto, unable to stand the silence finally spoke up.

"Yo, you wanted to talk?" The nine-tails stayed silent, his gaze continued to observe the young blond.

"**Naruto, you need to be careful, something is coming.**" The blind blinked once trying to comprehend what the fox was saying. He had been silent for a month now and his first words were a warning, it was concerning.

"what do you mean?" The nine-tails huffed in annoyance.

"**You know about your ability to sense things before they happen yes?**" Naruto nodded confused by the sudden change of the topic.

"Yeah, it's saved my life on more than one occasion."

"**Did you know that each of my siblings gives special abilities to their hosts. Each of you has things in common such as an increased healing factor, though yours is more advanced thanks to your Uzumaki heritage. But we each have unique talents that are, for a lack of a better word, inherited from us. Shukaku, as you know, allows for his host to control sand. The four-tails allows their host to use lava.**" Naruto's eyes widened at hearing that, a small part of him was jealous that the four-tails allowed it's host to be able to use something as cool as lava. "**I, on the other hand, have a more subtle ability, one which in my opinion, is the most useful of the nine. I can detect negative emotions if you were actively using my chakra you would see that your ability to sense things around you would increase tremendously.**"

"I guess I should thank you then." The nine-tails lowered his head to better look at his host.

"**You shouldn't, the ability as I explained, is passive. More importantly, I sensed something dangerous up ahead.**" The blond frowned.

"I'm in the middle of a mission right now, were going to intercept a Stone squad, so it's probably that." The giant fox narrowed his eyes.

"**I wouldn't be warning you if I thought you would be facing the normal fodder you've encountered.**"

"Do you know what the threat is."

"**No, if I were outside of the seal I would be able to be more accurate. Unfortunately, my ability to sense the outside world is limited. The war going on does not help either, negative emotions are flaring all over covering the land in a blanket of hate and sadness.**"

"I'll be extra careful." The nine-tails curled up and faced away from the blond.

"**Good, I don't need you dying on me yet.**" Naruto let out a small smile as he watched the nine-tails.

"Thanks for warning me, I appreciate it." The fox didn't respond verbally but he did make a 'go away' gesture with one of his tails. Taking the hint Naruto concentrated and was back outside of the seal, returning from his subconscious was always disorienting. Time moved slower in the seal and it always made coming back weird. Naruto looked around to gauge the amount of time he had spent in the seal, the majority of his teammates were still eating so not much time must have passed. The blond thought about warning Honda about what the nine-tails had said, but he didn't think that it would go well. Naruto brought out a ration bar and began eating to get rid of his growing hunger, he didn't know when the next time they would be able to rest. A loud whistle tore through the silence as Honda stepped into the center of the clearing.

"Listen up team. We won't be stopping again until we get into Grass country, so be prepared for a long journey. If we keep going at our current pace we should reach the border not too long after nightfall. We leave in 10 minutes." Honda turned to talk to one of the older chuunin after he made his announcement, they both went over to a stump with a map of the area with various spots marked on it. Naruto brought out his canteen and to wash down the tasteless ration bar. He let out a grimace as he thought about the possible threat laying ahead, especially if it made the old fox warn the blond.

'I hope I don't run into Orochimaru again.' The blond began rubbing his chest where his scars crossed. 'I don't need another scar from the fucker.' Thoughts of Orochimaru lead him to think about his former teammate and the traitorous medic. 'I hope we run into Kabuto though, I need to pay him back. I doubt I'll run into Sasuke any time soon, with how much effort the snake put into getting him he probably won't leave Orochimaru's side.

The squadron of chuunin finished their rest and marched on, the landscape around them began to change as the daylight began to fade. The lush forest of Fire country was slowly being replaced as the trees began to thin in numbers as more and more open grass fields replaced them. By the time the sunset the scenery changed completely to open grasslands with the occasional tree thrown in. Honda raised his hand from his spot in front as the group came to a halt.

"Where about a mile away from the rendezvous point so we'll meet up with them tomorrow, I'll go there now to make contact and establish a battle plan. Tomorrow, once we meet up with the escort team three of us will travel along with them but the rest of us will be trailing them far enough away that the enemy Stone squad won't see us. If they attack the caravan we'll come up from behind and take them out. For now, set up camp, We'll be taking one-hour watches in pairs, draw lots to see who will be taking watch." Honda turned and left after that as the remaining chuunin began to set themselves up. Naruto set up a small tent that was almost completely hidden by the tall grass, seeing this, Naruto began to pull long strands of grass to cover the top of the tent that was visible. Many of his fellow chuunins saw and copied his example. Eventually, after everyone was set up the older chuunin who had been next to Honda the entire journey spoke up.

"Ok, I've numbered pieces of paper from one to twelve. I everyone come and get one, those who get a blank piece are lucky and don't have to do watch." There was some grumbling but soon enough everyone went over and pulled a piece of paper from what appeared to be the chuunins bandana. Naruto got his piece of paper and looked down to see the number 11 written on it. "Ok, we'll keep it simple numbers one and two get the first watch, three and four get the second watch and so on." Naruto felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see brown-haired chuunin, he was fairly plain looking with the only thing that stood put was his height, he was almost as tall a Jiraiya.

"Hey, what number did you get?" Naruto flipped his paper around to show the tall chuunin.

"I got 11."

"Well it looks like I'll be waking you and your partner up, I got number 10. My names Aijin by the way" The now named Aijin stuck his hand out, The blond seeing the gesture took his hand in his and shook.

"Naruto Uzumaki." Aijin let out a small smirk.

"I know, I saw you during the invasion, you did good work out there. Anyway, we should meet our partners. I'll see you around Naruto." Aijin walked away and the whiskered blond looked around seeing everyone was grouping up, after asking around he finally found his partner. Looking closely at the kunoichi who was wearing a large coat that obscured her figure. She had black eyes and medium length hair, she was also a good 3 inches taller than Naruto who shot up a couple of inches during the last couple of months. She stood at a decent 5'7'' to his now 5'4''.

"Hello, My names Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto extended his hand out, the kunoichi looked at him for a solid 5 seconds before she slowly grabbed his hand.

"Greetings, I am Josei Aburame." Naruto looked down to see that Josei had not shaken his hand, she was simply holding it. The blond slowly shook her hand as she observed silently before pulling back.

"So, do you know Shino?"

"Yes." Naruto waited to see if she would elaborate, but she didn't. After a couple of very awkward seconds, Naruto tried to continue the conversation.

"So, how are you guys related?"

"He is my second cousin." There was another awkward silence that stretched on between the two chuunin. Naruto looked around to see if there was anything he could spot that would spark conversation and after several attempts of short and clipped responses, he decided it was a lost cause.

"Right, I'll be over at my tent if you need anything, I'll see you tonight for our watch." Naruto walked away at a brisk pace as Josei continued to look at him.

'Man, what a weird girl.' Naruto went to bed before long and was awoken by a sleepy Aijin, the blond spent the next hour failing miserably trying to talk to Josei. Eventually, their watch ended and not long after the sun rose everyone was up and awake. Honda looked at two other chuunin to accompany him to be out in the open, the older chuunin he had been talking to the entire trip and Aijin.

"Ok, people, Kensei and I went over a map of the region and there are three prime locations for an ambush. These areas are the most dangerous and as we pass these locations I will give you a signal so you are all aware. Stay alert at all times though, we never know when and where they could attack from."

The rest of the squad followed them at a distance and after a short trip met up with the escort team. The two teams continued the journey when they saw the road went under a cliffside, Honda stretched his arms up over his head, it was the signal the group had devised to warn them about possible ambush sites. Naruto watched the entire area like a hawk to see any signs of enemy movement. The blond did not have to wait long as a thin wall of earth sprang up in front in front of the caravan. Ten figures jumped down from the cliff, all of the hidden Leaf ninjas brought out shuriken and kunai and threw them at the backs of the ten figures. All ten went down immediately as they were hit with a rainstorm of shuriken and kunai, blood-splattered and as the figures fell over dead. Honda went over to inspect the bodies and gave the all-clear signal. Naruto approached the bodies with the rest of his team.

'They're young.' The blond let out a grimace as he gazed at the dead bodies of the stone ninja. 'They can't be older than 11 years old.' Naruto turned when he heard one of his older teammates curse.

"Those fuckin' Stone bastards. They did the same thing during the last war, they would send in fresh genins to psyche out our squads."

"Listen up. We travel as a group now but stay alert, let's keep going." Honda spoke as the entire squad along with the escort team began to travel. The hours passed slowly as the scenery became more flat and open. Naruto was behind the caravan along with Josei and Aijin when he felt a sudden sense of dread overcome him. The blond broke out into a cold sweat as they heard Honda yell out from the front of the caravan.

"Halt who goes there!" Naruto shared a look with Aijin and Josei as they made their way around the caravan to as all their allies looked out to see Honda walk near a giant hooded and cloaked figure.

"Hello, I am afraid that the caravan can no longer proceed." The cloaked figure replied

Honda went to go reach for his kunai but before he could the man moved faster than they could see and Honda fell over clutching his slit throat. The cloak fell off to the side and scarlet red armor could be seen covering the giant man along with a Stone village headband. The other chuunins brought out their weapons and surrounded the red giant who looked upon the circling chuunin with an air of utter disinterest. His voice reverberated across the clearing as he addressed the chuunins.

"My name is Han, and your journey ends here."


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: Difference In Power.**

For a moment, a single moment, the world stood still. Han's declaration along with the ease of him killing Honda had shocked the remaining chuunin to their cores. Han, seeing the lowered guard of the chuunin, moved at a blistering speed to the nearest enemy. Appearing in front of a shocked Kensei, Han twirled his kunai and jammed it through Kensei's throat, with a sharp twist the kunai was ripped out as nearby chuunins were splattered with blood. The soft thud of Kensei's body hitting the ground stirred the shocked Leaf ninjas into action. Twin cries of rage rang out as two ninjas tried to stab Han from either side. Naruto watched on as Han once again moved almost too fast to track, with lightning reflexes he grabbed the wrists of the two ninjas and with a mighty heave he pulled the two closer and made them stab each other in the chest. The two dropped dead as a black-headed kunoichi rushed Han from behind, she took a deep breath and unleashed a torrent of fire at point-blank range. The flames completely enveloped Han and for a split second the remaining Leaf forces were given hope that their enemy was defeated, that hope was broken as Han's hand shot out of the fire covering the Kunoichi's mouth as terror shone in her eyes. Han lifted the woman and slammed her into the ground with such strength the ground cratered.

"He's a monster." Naruto heard Aijin whisper in horror next to him.

"No. He's just an S-class ninja." Naruto couldn't help but reply, he had encountered many S-class ninjas but they all had one thing in common. They either needed him alive or were playing with him and his team, the red monster was the first S-class ninja who the blond had met aside from the crippled Orochimaru who was simply there to kill them. A sense of dread overcame Naruto as he saw how utterly outclassed they all were compared to Han.

Han, who was standing over the dead kunoichi, spun around as earth spikes sprang from behind him. With a wide swing of his arm, the spikes were broken and rendered useless as the three chuunin from the escort team sped towards the red giant with their weapons drawn. As they got closer Han closed his eyes and his chakra spiked before Naruto could shout out to warn his comrades Han opened his eyes and spoke.

"Boil Style: Scorching Mist." Just before the three Leaf ninjas could land their attacks, thick steam erupted from Han's armor surrounding him and the escort team, cries of pain echoed across the clearing before they were cut off one by one. Han exploded out of the mist and landed a crushing kick to another ninja, a resounding crack could be heard as his chest caved inward and the ninja was sent flying away from the remaining Leaf forces.

"Oh my god." Josei said as she fell to her knee's in shock as her insets began to buzz around her in agitation. Han hearing the teen raced over to the downed Kunoichi and raised his fist in preparation for a strike. Naruto bit the inside of his cheek so hard he tasted blood and buried his feelings of dread and despair deep inside himself. He began to gather chakra into his right arm and moved faster than any previous time of his life. Han, who was mid-swing suddenly stopped and shifted his arm to cover his face as a black fist impacted into his armor. The stone ninja's eyes widened when the force of the blow made him take a step back, using the opening Naruto sent a kick that sent Han skidding back a few feet. Naruto used quickly created a clone that picked up Josie and took her away from battle, the blonde's instinct flared like never before as he channeled tremendous amounts of chakra to reinforce his body as his arms came up too just barely in time to block a lighting fast strike from Han that sent the younger man through the caravan they were tasked with escorting. Naruto hissed in pain, his arm feeling like it had a mountain dropped on it.

'Fox, I need your help, anything you can offer would be great.' Naruto thought as once again his instincts flared, his eyes snapped to the sky where Han was. Steam exploded from the back of his armor as the red giant propelled himself down.

"Boil Style: Erupting Strong Foot!" With a quick body flicker, Naruto got out of the way as Han dropped down from the sky obliterating the Caravan and all of the supplies. Naruto took a glance around to see how the rest of his comrades were holding up, most were shaken, some were angry but everyone was ready to fight. Out of the original 18 Ninja, 7 were dead and Josei was too disturbed to continue, he saw another pair of chuunin rush the wreckage.

"Wait! Don't get close!" Naruto tried to warn his comrades but it was futile, they were too overcome with rage to listen to him. Han blasted out of the wreckage and clotheslined the two ninjas sending them crashing into the ground clutching their throats as they desperately trying to inhale air. Without hesitation, Han brought down his hands in a double chop to the necks of the downed ninja ending their suffering. Gritting his teeth in anger Naruto felt an outpour of the nine-tails chakra, his injuries healed and the chakra began to form a shroud around him with three tails forming behind him. Han's head snapped straight to the now red-eyed blond as he burst forward and hit Han away from his remaining allies. Naruto felt the fear of his comrades as they stared at him but the blond didn't care right now the biggest threat was the armored giant who was staring at the blond in an almost melancholy manor.

"To think, I would end up fighting kin." Han let out a sigh before he was slowly enveloped in a shroud of crimson chakra and an aura of death was felt as Han's killing intent skyrocketed.

Naruto felt his heart stop. Another Jinchuriki, but one who was already leagues above the blond even without the use of his tenant's chakra. Han disappeared from Naruto's sight, and the next moment the only thing Naruto could feel was pain. It took a moment for the blond to reorient himself. He was laying in a trench and he felt the damage to his injured chest being healed rapidly by fox's chakra. Naruto saw Han walking forward slowly a single tail swaying behind him. Naruto looked around and saw that the remaining chuunin were all on their knee's from Han's killing intent. The blond poured all the chakra he could as he shouted his signature jutsu.

"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" The clearing was filled with thousands of copies of the blond, each clone lacked the chakra shroud but had a feral look indicating that they had the nine-tails chakra coursing through them. Dozens of clones charged Han who began to effortlessly dispel them at an alarming rate. Naruto took deep breaths, he had used up the majority of chakra the nine-tails had given him along with a good portion of his reserves to summon the clones and his shroud of chakra went from three tails down to one The blond made his way quickly over to Aijin and Josei who had grouped up with the remaining chuunin during the blonds scuffle with the Stone ninja. The group looked at the blond warily but Naruto didn't have time to waste over any petty feelings of unease. Naruto looked to Aijin who was the most composed of the group

"You need to head back to base now and warn them about Han." Aijin looked at the blond as if he was crazy.

"You can't expect us to leave you here to fight him alone!"

Naruto let out a grimace at the thought of facing Han alone. "None of you stand a chance against him, I at least can distract him long enough for you guys to escape." Aijin opened his mouth to argue before another older chuunin placed his hand on his shoulder and spoke to him.

"Naruto is right, this has become a battle between jinchuriki. We would only get in the way, our top priority right now is letting the base know about Han." Naruto turned around to when a clone notified him of Han heading towards the group, the blond grit his teeth as he once again began to gather chakra. His clones had made a circle around the older jinchuriki but Han had just broken through. Naruto began to channel wind chakra into his kunai before launching it at the charging Stone ninja and blazing through hand seals.

"Kunai Shadow clone Jutsu!" The single kunai was soon joined by dozens of identical copies, Han sensing the danger spun in place as a wave of steam and chakra went forward and knocked the incoming kunai out of the way. Aijin, Josei and the rest of the chuunin took the opportunity to leave. Han once again resumed his charge, Naruto seeing this formed a Rasengan in and began to pump more and more chakra into it as he met Han's charge with his own. It began to increase in size until it was three times larger than a regular Rasengan, though unlike a normal Rasengan, this one was unstable and Naruto struggled to maintain its form. The red-clad warrior brought up his arm and steam began to pour out of it, as the two neared they locked eyes before bringing their attacks forward.

"Rasengan!"

"Boil Style: Erupting Propulsion Fist!" The two attacks met and the two stood even for a fraction of a second. Naruto's Rasengan collapsed and exploded as Han's fist tore through the condensed chakra striking the young blond in the face as he was sent flying. Han was also sent tumbling back once the explosion caught up with him. Naruto shakily stood up as his vision began to blur. The remaining clones began charging Han once they saw their creator being sent flying. Each clone formed an unstable Rasengan as they began throwing themselves at the older jinchuriki who was quickly swallowed by a tide of exploding Rasengans.

'Damn it! This fucking hurts!' Naruto raged as he looked at his bleeding right arm, there were deep gashes all over it from the exploding Rasengan, even with the nine-tails regeneration it was healing very slowly. Naruto took the moment to catch his breath while his clones distracted Han who was looking slightly worse for wear as a big crack could be seen on the chest plate of his armor. Han then let out a roar as he spun and three tails extended destroying any nearby clones, in the same fluid motion Han pierced the ground and water surrounded the kneeling man. Naruto acted without thinking once he felt his instincts flare.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" A small but thick wall of earth rose in front of the blond when he heard Han shout his technique.

"Boil Style: Steam Explosion!" Naruto felt the ground shake as superheated steam flew across the clearing destroying all of his clones. The wall of earth that protected the young blond crumbled as a hand broke through and latched on to Naruto's throat. Han's grip was as strong as steel, the blond could see he was back to one tail. Naruto saw his vision darkening as Han's slammed him into the ground, Just before the blond could lose consciousness he felt the all too familiar tug in his navel.

The damp ground of his seal was a welcome break from the confrontation with Han, Naruto looked at the seal and saw the nine-tails observing him with a calculating look.

"**You're Losing.**" Naruto looked at the giant fox with a stoic face

"Really? I hadn't noticed." The blond tried to keep the sarcasm out of his voice but the stress of the situation got to him.

"**The five-tails container is strong, far stronger than you.**"

"Did you drag me in here just to mock me? Cause I kinda have a giant angry red man to deal with that is in the middle of strangling me to death." The Nine-tails narrowed his eyes and let out a huff of annoyance.

"**Oh? And what exactly were you planning to do to escape?**" The blond grit his teeth knowing that he couldn't have done anything. "**I brought you here to let you know I'm going to be giving you more chakra.**" Naruto looked at the fox in curiosity.

"Then why bring me here at all." A small almost sinister smile formed on the ancient fox.

"**I'll be giving you four tails worth of my chakra.**" A sense of weariness erupted from the blond.

"And why is that any more special than the other times you've given me chakra."

"**You have noticed that you become more aggravated when you use my chakra yes?**" Naruto nodded it was impossible to miss how his emotions especially his anger would spike. "**The effects of my chakra grow exponentially from the third to fourth tail. Not only that but your sensory range for my ability also increases dramatically. The worst part is that now you'll unlock more of my ability**." Naruto's eyes widened. "**Before it hasn't been an issue but once you enter the fourth tailed stage it will be active until you stop using my chakra**." The blond felt his heart hammer, what kind of monstrous ability did the fourth tail unlock?

"What's the ability?" Asked Naruto with trepidation. The Great fox lowered himself so he was eye to eye with the young blond.

"**Empathy.**" The blond stood in silence for a while trying to process what the fox had said.

"Empathy?" Repeated the blond, his tone conveying doubt. The nine-tails looked at Naruto with annoyance.

"**Yes, Empathy.**" The nine-tails said his tone taking a hard edge."**Once you use my fourth tail you will be able to constantly sense negative emotion, not just the spikes of malcontent the enemy has when they attack. So now imagine, feeling every negative emotion from miles around. Their anger, their sadness, their fear, their greed, their guilt, their hate.**"The nine-tails paused giving Naruto time to digest the information. "**You'll experience everything as if you were experiencing it yourself, tell me Naruto.**" The red eyes of the nine-tails seemed to intensify as they gazed into the blue-eyed human."**Do you think that my ability is something that can be easily brushed aside?**" The tension in the air was palpable and Naruto was tempted to look away but a steely determination manifested in the blond and he held the fox's gaze.

"I can do it" The fox didn't say anything and the two stood in silence for what felt like an eternity, then the silence was broken as the nine-tails shifted his many tails.

"**We'll see.**" That was the final thing Naruto heard before he was swallowed by a tidal wave of red chakra.

The chuunin's eyes snapped open as he sent a kick to Han's torso sending the older jinchuriki flying back. The blond landed on all fours and he was about to rush Han when he suddenly stopped.

Pain. He felt the pain of hundreds of people all around as they struggled to survive

Anxiety. He felt the anxiety of those who worried about getting caught up in this war, of soldiers .wishing they wouldn't have to go to the front lines.

Envy. He felt the envy of the populace who wished they lived in the walled settlements of the hidden villages.

Anger. He felt the anger of those who wished that the war never started to ruin their peaceful lives.

Fear. He felt the fear of the soldiers who wanted to go home and of the civilians who hoped their loved ones wouldn't get caught in an attack by an enemy army.

Hate. So much hate. Naruto felt the hate the leaf had for the invading Stone ninja. He felt the Hate and resentment of the Stone ninja who still suffered from the last war. He felt the hate of the adults who cursed both villages for fighting a war that had nothing to do with them on their land. The blond clutched his head as tears started to fall from his eyes as he tried to comprehend all the new emotions he was experiencing. The blond vaguely heard Han in the background let loose a roar of rage, without thinking the blond jumped back as he felt a spike of anger, sorrow, and hate directed at him. The action snapped the blond out of his anguish as he now had a target for all of his emotions. Han landed in the spot the blond occupied moments before five tails swaying behind him.

"I've had enough of this, you're far too much trouble." Naruto felt another rush of chakra as a fifth tail grew, his he felt a rise in aggression and for a moment his he could only see red. Letting out a war cry the younger jinchuriki rushed his older counterpart. Naruto could see Han dodge and duck under his furious flurry of clawed swipes and kicks, this only caused his anger to rise and he redoubled his efforts. Han ducked under another swipe from an extended chakra hand and launched his own chakra fist that sent the savage blond tumbling away.

"Enough!" Han shouted as Naruto got back up. "You have no control, you can't win against me. But seeing how stubborn you are let me show you just how outclassed you truly are." Han's tone became darker as he finished his sentence. Naruto was about to rush the Stone ninja again when an explosion of chakra tore the clearing all around them, the blond shifted his stance as he braced himself and he watched as Han enveloped himself in a sphere of pure chakra. There was a pulse from the sphere which created a creator and Naruto was snapped out of his anger induced haze as every single survival instinct he had made him want to run away. Slowly the sphere broke apart to reveal a miniature five-tails. Han now looked vaguely like a horse with an elongated head, his entire body was a crimson red and his eyes looked like pools of glowing ivory.

"**This, is what is called a version 2 cloak. It's something only jinchuriki with a mastery over their beasts chakra can achieve**." Naruto shivered, Han's voice didn't sound human anymore. Naruto took half a second to think about his options knowing running away was impossible so he did what felt most natural.

"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!'' The clearing, which was torn up from the clashing Jinchuriki, was for a second time that hour filled to the brim with clones.

"**That won't work**!" Han said as he raised himself to stand on his hind legs before bringing his hoofs down sending a shockwave across the clearing dispelling many of the newly created clones. Naruto started to panic as the remaining clones began to throw every jutsu they had in their arsenal at Han in the hopes of doing damage. Han was bombarded by a rainstorm of fireballs, windblasts, kunai and Lighting bolts. The older jinchuriki did not even acknowledge the jutsus being thrown at him as he ran through every attack as if it didn't exist, ramming clone after clone as he rampaged. Han was approaching the real Naruto who felt the frustration getting to him at being unable to even hurt the older jinchuriki, so he began to form a Rasengan. The blond began to pour unholy amounts of chakra into it as it grew steadily in his hand, he had a clone stand next to him to help stabilize the growing sphere as Naruto continued to pump the Rasengan with more and more chakra. The Rasengan was taller than the blond and just as wide when the blond had finished fueling it with chakra. Naruto jumped in the air as several of his clones rushed and latched themselves to Han to hold him in place.

"Rasengan!" The giant Rasengan slammed into Han and the clones retraining him instantly dispelled. Naruto felt the Rasengan begin to dig into the earth taking Han along with it but the progress stopped abruptly and then Naruto felt himself being pushed back as the Rasengan was being lifted into the air by big white horns. Naruto was then flung through the surrounding trees as his Rasengan fell apart as his concentration faltering. The blond slowly threw a log off himself as he stared at the fully transformed Han.

'Fuck.' Naruto thought as he stared at the fully transformed jinchuriki taking the form of his prisoner, the five-tailed dolphin horse. Naruto brought his thumb up to his mouth where his elongated fang sank into his flesh, going through the necessary hand seals to be able to summon some help.

"Summoning Jutsu." There was a giant cloud of smoke which soon revealed the toad boss. Before Gamabunta could question his appearance he had to dodge a head butt by jumping high in the air to avoid the charging Han.

"**What the Hell! Is that the fucking Five-tails!?**" Naruto who was clinging to the top of Gamabunta's head shouted at the toad boss to get his attention.

"I'm sorry Bunta, I didn't know what else to do to try and deal with him." The toad let out a gruff tsk as he had to dodge the charging Han once more.

"**Well there isn't much I **_**can**_** do but I'll help where I can. You owe me some barrels of Saki brat.**"

"Thanks, Bunta." Naruto watched as Han continued to run forward before turning around and dashing back trampling large areas of the forest. Gamabunta once again jumped up to avoid the transformed jinchuriki only for Han to jump as well. In the air, Han spun swinging his tails at the boss toad. Gamabunta grunted in pain as he was sent flying away by the impact of the tails.

"**Damn, he's fast**." Naruto couldn't disagree, Han was on them the second they landed and so far Gamabunta was lucky to escape so un-harm. Then Han did something that took the blond by surprise, he jumped straight back and away from the duo. He then brought his five tails above his head where little orbs of chakra began to gather into a black orb. Naruto felt his instincts flare again, whatever that orb was it wasn't good. "**Shit! He's too far to stop, hold on kid, it's about to get bumpy!**" Naruto looked back and forth between the toad boss and Han.

"What is that!" The chief toad didn't have time to reply, Han decided it was an appropriate time to unleash his attack and he brought his head forward. Naruto's vision went white for a moment as felt the intense movement of the chief toad as he dodged whatever the attack was. There was a deafening blast and the earth shook from the impact. Naruto saw his vision return and looked back and saw the utter devastation the attack had left behind. There was a long trench formed from the trail of the attack leading to a mountain. Naruto felt his legs almost buckle.

The mountain was missing it's upper half, the blond finally fell to his knees when an influx of emotions reached him. Terror, fear, and panic filled his being as he felt hundreds of people reacting to the aftermath of Han's attack.

Naruto was brought back by the voice of Gamabunta. "**That, was the tailed beast bomb. It's the Tailed-beast's strongest attack.**" Naruto looked back at Han and his heart stopped for the second time that day. Han was about to fire another blast, the ball expanded without warning into a beam, Gamabunta let out a curse as he desperately jumped to the side to try and avoid the attack. Naruto heard the boss toad scream in pain as the beam managed to catch the toads left arm incinerating it along with a good portion of the surrounding forest. Gamabunta fell to the ground clutching his stump arm before he was dispelled from the damage he sustained. Naruto tumbled to the ground at the sudden loss of his living platform before having to body-flicker away to avoid a giant hoof of Han. Steam enveloped Han as his body began to shrink back into his five tailed version one form. There was total silence that was only broken by Han's heavy footsteps that echoed across the remains of the forest. Han looked completely unharmed aside from a single crack in his chest plate. Naruto grit his teeth in an attempt to curve his anger which was amplified by the emotions of others inside his sensory range.

Han dashed forward and brought his fist in a downward strike and the blond couldn't move fast enough to block. His body was sent crashing into the ground and before he could get up Han kicked the blond in the chest sending him rolling away. Naruto felt the nine-tails chakra heal his injuries and his vision went black for a moment as his chakra levels dipped. All the raging emotions of the villagers and ninjas suddenly went quiet and the Naruto could think clearly again. The blond looked back and saw he only had two chakra tails. 'That's not good' Naruto thought as he moved his arms in an attempt to pick himself up only to stop as searing hot pain erupted from his muscles. Holding back a shout of pain the blond forced himself to his feet despite the protest of his body.

"Looks like you've reached your limit." Han's voice was back to normal and Naruto glared at the approaching figure as he continued to talk. "Our bodies weren't made to use the beast's chakra. It takes years of dedication and practice before the negative side effects no longer affect you." Han was about 20 paces from the blond at this point. "The beasts chakra has incredible healing properties but did you know it's also incredibly corrosive to humans. The more chakra we channel the bigger the effect. I knew that I couldn't defeat you if you started using more of your prisoner's chakra than what you were already using. Out of the nine, the one you contain is on a level of its own, luckily I just had to wear you out to the point your body could no longer handle channeling its chakra." Han was ten paces away when he was hit by a searing blast of fire that knocked him away and the blond felt a sense of relief overcome him.

"Look at this Kakuzu. Lord Jashin has blessed us, looks like we've got a two for one deal on the demon containers!" Naruto's head snapped back to where the attack had come from and standing there where two people with black cloaks and red clouds. Naruto couldn't believe it. the Akatsuki had shown up.


End file.
